Jiangxi Copper Concentrates Self-Sufficiency To Rise -Official

SHANGHAI, Sept. 21 -- Jiangxi Copper Co. (600362.SH) will likely gain self-sufficiency in copper concentrates in the coming years, a senior official with the company said.

    "Self-supply in concentrates will probably go beyond the current 20%...because of growing output from our own mines and overseas projects," Chief Financial Officer Gan Chengjiu said at an industry conference over the weekend.

    The country's largest copper smelter by output expects to produce 800,000 metric tons of cathode this year, and "that means around 160,000 tons of refined copper using our own concentrates," Gan told reporters on the sidelines of the conference.

    Chinese copper smelters typically rely heavily on imported concentrates due to a lack of domestic mines supplying better grades.

    The company's own copper concentrate production will likely increase by more than 10,000 tons this year, and will reach around 210,000 tons in the next two-three years, Gan said.

    "Part of the growth in concentrate self-supply will come from the Afghan project we invested in last year, and by 2012, we'll be able to obtain 50% of the 200,000 tons of concentrate coming out from that project," said Gan.

    Jiangxi Copper, along with China Metallurgical Group Corp., invested US$4.39 billion to develop a large copper project in the Aynak field in Afghanistan, the company said last June.

    Jiangxi Copper expects to produce 1 million tons of cathode by 2012, Gan said over the weekend.

    (Source: Dow Jones)