September 06, 2008

Shougang starts high phosphorus iron ore project in Hubei

It is reported that Major Chinese steelmaker Shougang, has started construction on a high phosphorus iron ore development project in Yichang in central China's Hubei province on September 15th 2007. The Yichang government signed an agreement for the project with Shougang last year.

According to a government source Shougang has registered a new company in Yichang city named New Shougang Resources Holdings to be responsible for the project. The mining area is about 26.88 square kilometers and is believed to contain reserves totalling around 152.9 million tonnes.

The project would include mining and concentrating operations. A local report suggests the two phase project would cost a total investment of over CNY 300 million with the first-phase 600,000 tonnes per year capacity slated to operate from late June in 2008. The capacity would be then expanded to 1.5 million tonnes per year later.

The western part of Hubei province-consisting of Yichang city, Shiyan city and Enshi autonomous state is believed to hold reserves of around 2bn tonnes of high phosphorus iron ore grading over 40% Fe.