The Zijin miner said Monday that it started production at its Qulong copper mine in Tibet, one of the largest in China, the world’s largest metal consumer, adding a new source of supply to the market for next year.
Zijin took control of the Qulong mine about 18 months ago when it bought a 50.1% stake in the operator. Tibet Julong Copper Co and quickly resumed construction of the project.
Julong Copper is expected to produce 120,000-130,000 tonnes of copper in 2022, including volumes from Qulong Phase 1 and the Zhibula mine, which is also located in Tibet, Zijin said in a filing with the Hong Kong stock exchange. .
“Once Phase 1 reaches the designated production capacity, the annual volume of copper production will be approximately 160,000 tons,” he added.
The market expects the tension in the copper concentrates market seen in recent years to ease in 2022 as increased production gets underway.
Zijin said Julong Copper had applied to merge the mining rights to the Qulong mine and the adjacent Rongmucuola mine, arguing that they belong to the same copper ore body. After the merger, the mine will be renamed Julong and Phases 2 and 3 will continue, he added.
“If the project gets approvals from the relevant government authorities, a final extraction and processing scale of approximately 200 million tons of minerals per year, and it will become the copper mine with the largest extraction and processing scale in the world, “said Zijin.
Reference-www.eleconomista.com.mx