Chinalco Prioritizes Copper Business

BEIJING, Mar. 23 -- As copper has become a mainstay of Aluminum Corporation of China (Chinalco), the Chinese aluminum giant has set a goal for its copper subsidiary China Copper Co., Ltd. to achieve sales value of CNY 1 billion in 2010.

Lately, Chinalco has decided give the priority to its copper business development. The long-term target of the group is to turn China Copper into the biggest copper producer in China, with CNY 60 billion in total assets.

Established two years ago, China Copper came into official operation last week. Now, it is in talks with Tongling Nonferrous Metals Group Co., Ltd. (SHSE: 000630) about equity transfer, and with Jiangxi Copper Company Limited (SHSE: 600362) for cooperation. It does not rule out the possibility to work together with Rio Tinto, one of the world's iron ore titans, to develop copper mines.

Liu Caiming, chairman of Yunnan Copper Co., Ltd. and vice president of Chinalco, has taken the office of president of China Copper. Gao Lidong, chief financial officer of Yunnan Copper, has been named as its CFO.