wuhan steel mulls iron ore jv in chile

From today's Metal Bulletin:

Wuhan Steel mulls iron ore jv in Chile

Singapore 25 August 2008 10:31

Wuhan Steel is in talks with Cia Minera Santa Barbara (CMSB) on the joint development of an iron ore deposit in Chile.

CMSB owns a 200-300 million tonne resource near Vallenar in Chile, and is negotiating with Wuhan on launching an open pit mining operation together.

“We held similar negotiations a year ago, but it fell apart on lack of any info about the resource. But after a year of using their iron ore fines, we are convinced that the iron ore is good quality so we would like to resume the talks,” an official from Wuhan Steel’s international trading company told MB today.

No feasibility study or drilling has commenced yet, and the official did not disclose when the talks will conclude.

CMSB is 49%-owned by Admiralty Resources NL, an Australian company and is developing nine different mine sites in Chile.

Wuhan Steel is China's foruth-biggest steel mill.