Iron Ore Sector Little Affected by Ya’an Quake

SHANGHAI, Apr. 25 (SMM) – The earthquake striking Ya’an city of China’s Sichuan province caused local industrial production and mining operations to stall, but iron ore sector is little affected.
Iron ore reserve in Ya’an city was only 32.71 million mt, ranking the 12^th in Sichuan province. Moreover, only Xingjing county of Ya’an city carries out iron ore mining operation, and most of the resources are pyrite with annual ROM output less than 100,000 mt.

In addition, among Sichuan’s major iron ore production bases, Liangshan Yi Autonomous Prefecture is the nearest to Ya’an city, with its Mainning county, Dechang county, and Xichang city all reporting tremors. However, local mine operators said mining operations have returned normal despite a brief suspension required by local government to ensure security. Meanwhile, as Sichuan province is experiencing low-water period, some mines in Liangshan have halted mining and beneficiation for over half a month due to water and power shortage, which also undermined the influence of the quake. Concentrate capacity of Xichang city is 20.60 million mt/yr.

Finally, although some investors expect the post-quake reconstruction to buoy steel consumption in the region, Steelease believes the impact will be quiet limited as most of houses damaged or collapsed in the quake were not reinforce concrete buildings and as the reconstruction may take as long as one or two years.