Baiyin Nonferrous Group Co Ltd, China's third-largest zinc producer and a major copper smelter, plans to more than double annual metal production capacity to 650,000 tonnes in 3 years, a top executive said on Wednesday.
The firm, 49 percent owned by CITIC Group, was working on a listing plan in Shanghai and aimed to list its shares by 2011, Chairman Li Peixing told a lead and zinc conference in Lanzhou city in Gansu province.
"We want to use CITIC's overseas project experience to speed up our overseas and domestic mining project development," he told Reuters during the conference.
State-owned CITIC bought the stake last year from the Gansu government.
Li said the firm would use CITIC as a platform for overseas mining acquisitions.
Baiyin currently has 100,000 tonnes of copper capacity, about 170,000 tonnes of zinc and 30,000 tonnes of lead, while a company executive said the 3-year plan was to build another 200,000-300,000 tonnes of zinc capacity.
The Gansu government has given Baiyin the right to consolidate lead and zinc mines in the province, which would provide resources for the expansion, he added.
About 100,000 tonnes of outdated zinc production capacity in Gansu had been closed, the executive said. It was not clear whether that capacity would be closed permanently or be upgraded.
Gansu holds 9.4 million tonnes of zinc resources and 3 million tonnes of lead resources, a provincial government official told the same conference.
Baiyin also plans to build another 150,000-200,000 tonnes of copper production capacity by 2011, the executive said, adding that the supply of imported concentrates would be an important factor for construction of the new capacity.
Source: Reuters
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