chinese solution

Its time we got these two partioes connected.

MINING NEWS
Chinese hunting for global copper
Paul Garvey
Friday, 30 March 2007

THE vice president of one of China's largest copper importers has promised the company will continue to seek entry into copper projects in Australia and the rest of the world.
Speaking through an interpreter at the CRU World Copper conference in Santiago, China Minmetals Nonferrous Metals vice president Huang Guoping said Minmetals would continue to seek "large-scale, low cost and high quality copper assets" around the world.

Huang said Minmetals had recently established a joint venture with Chile's state-owned copper giant Codelco for the supply of 8365,000 tonnes of copper over the next 15 years, while Minmetals had also taken up an option to purchase a 25% stake in "a new project in north Chile".

"This project is an important breakthrough for the 'going abroad' strategy of Chinese non-ferrous metals industry and it is also the largest investment project of any Chinese company in Latin America," he said.

Huang also said Minmetals would look to aid in the development of increased copper production from within China itself as a means to shore up supply of copper for China's hungry smelters.

He said recent exploration in China had identified 26.8 million tonnes of copper resources, which will "greatly relieve" the heavy dependency of China's smelters on copper imports.

Looking ahead, Huang said the annual growth rate of Chinese copper consumption would slow down "over the next few years", but consumption by the power, electronics and construction industries would see consumption levels stay high.

"In the next four years, the tight domestic energy supply of China will be relieved; the high growth of air conditioner and auto industries will gradually slow down; and the basic copper consumption will reach a relatively high and stable level," he said.

He added that government intervention would look to push China's copper refining industry from an export- to import-driven sector.

"The restrictions and regulations of the central government on export policies will finally transfer the copper consumption structure that heavily relies on exports to a structure that is driven by domestic consumption," he said.

China Minmetals ranks as China's largest importer of copper cathode. The company also owns Hong Kong-listed Minmetals Resources, which will be the parent company's "overseas capital platform".