SHANGHAI, Mar 21 (SMM) - With the rapid development of China's economy, the importance of mineral resources as a key pillar to support economic growth has become increasingly prominent. During the Two Sessions (the National People’s Congress and the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference) this year, Wang Guanghua, head of Ministery of Natural Resources, also stated that this year, some policies will be introduced successively to create more favourable market environment for ore mining and encourage social capital to invest in mining operations.
Recently, Hezhang Dingshengxin Mining Development had made headlines with its Zhugongtang Lead-Zinc Mine in Hezhang County, Guizhou Province. It is reported that the 11 drilling machines deployed by the company at the construction site of Zhugongtang Lead-Zinc Mine have yielded good results
Within just five months, the exploration of the mine has gone as far as 19,000 meters underground. Lately, high-grade ore core has been discovered again in another drill hole, which means the ore discovery rate has reached more than 90%.
According to public information, Hezhang Dingshengxin Mining Development Co., Ltd. obtained the mining rights of the Zhugongtang Lead-Zinc Mine in January 2021, covering a total mining area of 15.52 square kilometres. The company has reported discovery of 3.27 million mt of lead and zinc metals in a mining area of just 3.135 square kilometres, among which zinc metal resources amounted to 2.46 million mt (with an average grade of 6.74%) and lead metal resources amounted to 813,800 mt (with an average grade of 2.23%).
In 2022, the Zhugongtang Lead-Zinc Mine was included as one of the key projects in Guizhou. The mining and dressing operations officially started on December 27 of the same year, with a total planned investment of 3.05 billion yuan. The annual lead and zinc concentrate output of mine is expected to be 170,000 mt, worth more than 3 billion yuan.
Hezhang Dingshengxin Mining Development Co., Ltd. also revealed the mineral resources in Hezhang are abundant. It is learned that Hezhang County is home to 25 kinds of metals and non-metal ores, and its zinc, lead and iron reserves top most other countries in the province. Moreover, Hezhang Dingshengxin Mining Development Co., Ltd. also predicts that there must be many unproven ore bodies in Hezhang to be explored, so the potential is rather huge.
It is worth mentioning that Shengda Resources, a domestic giant in silver mining, once signed a contract with Guidzhou Dingshengxin Mining to procure Zhugongtang Lead-Zinc Mine. At that time, Shengda Resources was optimistic about the mine and claimed to put the first and second phase of the mining and dressing project into production in 2023 to reach a capacity of 1.98 million mt/year.
However, Shengda Resources eventually terminated the purchase considering the slow progress of the project.
At present, China's zinc ore supply is rather sufficient, with smelters holding ample stocks. Moreover, since the beginning of the year, the TCs of domestic zinc concentrates have remained high, thus the high profits also stimulate domestic zinc smelters to ramp up production. SMM previously predicted that the output of refined zinc in March will exceed 560,000 mt.
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