PRLog (Press Release) – Jul 28, 2010 – Surrvey of Copper Industry in China
China is the largest copper producer and consumer in the world and its demand for copper will keeps strong in the future, thanks to the steady increase in copper output in recent years. However, China is confronted with tight supply and high price of copper, thus, Chinese government has carried out several regulations on copper industry to upgrade the industry and protect the environment.
Copper ore is widely but unevenly distributed in China, with Tibet, Yunnan and Jiangxi being the largest holders of copper reserve. The output of most cathode copper manufacturers in China was continuously increasing in the last 10 years. And many manufactures has expanded or going to expand their copper production capacity by improving the production line or investing a new project in 2010. In the future, sharply increasing demand and Chinese government’s policies will drive Chinese copper production to increase continuously.
Although China is the largest copper production base, there is (a) big gap between supply and demand. China highly depends on imported copper ore, with its self-sufficiency rate witnessing downtrend in last 5 years and its import volume of copper reaching 3.11 million tonnes in 2009. And its self-sufficiency rate was 35.96%in 2009.
SHFE copper price experienced a rapid growth and then a steep dive in the period from 2007-2009, and recovered at the end of 2009. In 2010, SHFE copper price will maintain in the range of USD8,000/t~USD8,900/t. And Chinese demand and weak USD would be the most important factor influencing the copper price in the coming 5 years.
To read the balance of this release please go to http://www.prlog.org/10821939-government-policies-will-drive-chinese-copper-industry-available-through-bharatbook.html
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by Meredith Booth
A huge copper deposit discovered on the Yorke Peninsula is expected to lead to a jobs boom for the Ardrossan region, a minerals exploration company predicted yesterday.
The Hillside project between Port Julia and Ardrossan is globally significant, in the top 25 per cent of existing and undeveloped open-pit copper projects, explorer Rex Minerals said.
"This is a significant boost to Yorke Peninsula," Rex chief executive Steven Olsen said.
"We already have 20 staff plus the drilling crew there but you obviously could get into the hundreds of people employed (once a mine is developed).
"In the space of only six months, dedicated resources drilling has seen Hillside emerge as a great discovery.
"Ongoing drilling success could soon show that Hillside is one of Australia's largest copper projects behind Olympic Dam and Mt Isa."
Rex yesterday announced its first estimate of the Hillside deposit according to industry-accepted standards.
It told the stock exchange it had an inferred resource equal to 700,000 tonnes of copper and 650,000 ounces of gold, based on drilling results from one third of the site.
Hillside's target is now up to 2.3 million tonnes of copper and annual production estimates could go beyond those produced by OZ Minerals' $1.2 billion Prominent Hill mine in the state's north.
South Australian Chamber of Mines and Energy chief executive Jason Kuchel was cautiously optimistic about the potential.
"They still have a way to go," he said.
"Most people want to get a mine life of more than 7-10 years ... certainly it's shaping up to be a very promising resource.
"We're talking about 100 jobs during construction and probably at least several hundreds of jobs during the operation of the mine," he said.
Proximity to roads, ports, power and the city would cut mine development, making it a "win-win" for the company and communities on Yorke Peninsula, Mr Kuchel said.
Mr Olsen said most of the copper and gold found at Hillside was only 10m below the surface - making the deposit well suited to shallow, large-scale, low-cost bulk mining.
To read the balance of this story go to: http://www.news.com.au/copper-miners-have-struck-gold/story-e6frea83-1225898173748
By Debarati Roy and Jack Kaskey
ArcelorMittal, the world’s biggest steelmaker, plans to expand iron-ore capacity by two-thirds within five years to protet against price volatility, Chief Executive Officer Lakshmi Mittal said. It aims to raise capacity to 100 million metric tons from 60 million tons, he said today in an interview in New York. “Vertical integration has always been our strategy and now it gets even more reinforced,” he said.
Steelmakers paid higher prices for iron ore and other raw materials such as coking coal this year on rising demand in China, the world’s largest producer of the metal. They also face having to buy iron ore from BHP Billiton Ltd., Vale SA and Rio Tinto Group, the three biggest exporters, based on quarterly contracts instead of fixed-price, annual accords.
Mittal said earlier in a speech at the Steel Success Strategies conference that he doesn’t favor quarterly pricing, which could be “dangerous.” “The reality of quarterly pricing means raw material costs will increase over the remainder of this year,” he said in the speech.
Australia’s BHP and London-based Rio are likely to increase quarterly iron-ore prices by about 23 percent in the three months starting July 1, according to Macquarie Group Ltd. The spot price for 63 percent iron ore has advanced 90 percent in the past 12 months, according to data from The Steel Index.
The company has added mining assets in Brazil and Russia since Mittal Steel Co. bought Arcelor SA in 2006 in the steel industry’s biggest takeover.
Chinese steel demand, which rose 25 percent last year, created an imbalance in the iron-ore market, Mittal said in his speech. China’s demand may rise 10 percent this year, …
This article was excerted from Bloomberg News. For the balance of the story please go to: http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2010-06-22/arcelormittal-aims-to-expand-iron-ore-mining-capacity-by-66-in-five-years.html
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