Tisco, China Nonferrous Agree To Develop Myanmar Nickel Project

SHANGHAI, Jul 29-- Taiyuan Iron & Steel (Group) Co., also known as Tisco, said Thursday that it has signed an agreement with China Nonferrous Metal Mining Group Co. to jointly develop the Tagaung Taung nickel mining project in Myanmar.

Under the agreement, Tisco will inject capital into CNMC Nickel Co., which will be renamed CNMC Tisco Nickel Co., Tisco said in a statement on its website, without specifying how much it plans to invest in the CNMC unit.

The newly-named company will strive to develop nickel-related overseas mining resources and enhance cross-region and cross-industry trading partnerships with domestic and overseas mining companies, it said.

Mining and smelting operations at Taguang Taung will commence midway through next year and production is expected to be 85,000 metric tons of ferronickel and 22,000 tons of pure nickel content a year, a CNMC official told Dow Jones Newswires in May.

China and Myanmar signed a joint-venture agreement in 2004 for the $800 million project, which has about 700,000 tons of laterite nickel ore reserves. Construction began in 2008.

Tisco is China's largest stainless steel producer by output and needs more than 100,000 tons of nickel each year for stainless steel making.