Xiangguang Copper eyes stake in Australian mine
Shanghai. March 10. INTERFAX-CHINA - Xiangguang Copper Co. Ltd., a privately-owned copper smelter based in Liaocheng City, Shandong Province, is in talks with Australian Stock Exchange-listed CuDeco Ltd. to buy a 15 percent stake in its Rocklands copper mine, state media reported on March 10.
"We are interested in purchasing overseas resources to secure our raw material supplies and CuDeco is a good option," Xiangguang Copper President Liu Zhiguang said in a China Daily report.
A Xiangguang Copper employee surnamed Yang told Interfax that the company is dependent on purchasing imported copper concentrate, and has considered buying into copper deposits for a long time.
Xiangguang Copper's annual production capacity currently stands at 200,000 tons of copper, 700,000 tons of sulfuric acid, 10 tons of gold and 300 tons of silver. The company is now building a new 200,000-ton copper production facility, which is expected to start operations in the first half of 2011, according to Yang.
The Rocklands copper mine is located in Australia's state of Queensland. It has an expected 10-year exploration time frame, and once fully operational will have an annual production capacity of 3 million tons and an annual revenue of around $960 million, according to the report.
Xiangguang Copper is a subsidiary of China's Shandong Fengxiang Group, which mainly supplies poultry to global fast food chains.
-LCL