Baotou Steel Rare-Earth Eyes Expansion in Jiangxi Province

GANZHOU, Aug. 6 -- Inner Mongolia's Baotou Steel Rare-Earth (Group) Hi-Tech Co planned to invest up to RMB 232.4 million in three local rare earths firms in Ganzhou, Jiangxi Province, sources reported.

The company will invest RMB 73.87 million to acquire a 48% stake in Xinfeng Xinli Rare Earth Co Ltd, and inject RMB 89.21 million to set up a joint venture with Quannan Jinghuan Technology Co Ltd, in which it will hold 49% stake.

It will also invest RMB 69.34 million to buy a 9.25% stake in Ganzhou Chenguang Rare Earth Co Ltd that aims to go public in three years.

The move aims to enrich the firm's resource structures. At present, it mainly focused on light rare earth in Inner Mongolia autonomous region.

Baotou Steel Rare-Earth Co reaped a net profit of RMB 354 million in the first half of this year, or 6.27 fold increase year on year.

Ganzhou is rich in rare earth resource, with proved reserves of 2.89 million tons of ion-absorbed-type rare earth elements, or 40% of the nation's total.