Alibaba News Channel - ‎China group says $800 million Myanmar mine on track

Alibaba News Channel - ‎China group says $800 million Myanmar mine on track
Published: 21 Apr 2009 21:17:51 PST

BEIJING, April 22 - A Chinese mining giant has said it is committed to an $800 million ferro-nickel mine in northern Myanmar, which officials said will eventually lift the impoverished southeast Asian nation's GDP by over 2 percent.

Executives from the China Non-Ferrous Metal Group (CNMC) told visiting Myanmar Prime Minister Thein Sein, a general in the ruling junta, they would strive to complete preparations for the big mine at Tagaungtaung in northern Myanmar as early as possible, the China Nonferrous Metal News reported on Tuesday.

The Chinese-language newspaper reached subscribers on Wednesday.

CNMC underscored the economic importance of the project and the support it has received from Chinese leaders seeking to shore up ties with Myanmar, also called Burma and largely shunned by Western governments.

"The Tagaungtaung ferro-nickel mine is the biggest cooperative project between China and Myanmar in the mining sector," the Group's general manager, Luo Tao, told Thien, who was attending a regional business forum on the southern Chinese island of Hainan, according to the paper.

The global slump and sharp falls in metals prices have forced several companies to abandon or put on hold their plans for new mines.

But China has pressed forward with investments that will give it a more secure hold on resources when growth revives. And it has also kept close to Myanmar's ruling junta even as other Asian nations criticise the generals for their harsh political grip.

Luo said the mine will produce 80,000 tonnes of ferro-nickel, an alloy used in stainless steel production, and lift Myanmar's gross domestic production by over 2 percent. But he did not say when the mine will open.

Earlier reports on the CNMC website (www.cnmc.com.cn) said the Tagaungtaung mine would take 30 months to build, meaning operation could start around early 2011, eventually producing about 22,000 tonnes of pure nickel content every year.

The latest report did not specify how much of a stake the Myanmar government has in the mine, an issue that apparently contributed to delays in the project.

Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao has given his "close concern and vigorous support" to the mining deal, which was signed in July 2008, said the paper. And Myanmar Prime Minister Thien said he would solve any problems the project encounters, it also said.

Tagaungtaung, also rendered as Tagaung Taung, is a mineral-rich area about 320 kilometres (200 miles) north of Mandalay.

The junta, which has ruled the former Burma since 1962, has refused to recognise a 1990 landslide election victory of the opposition National League for Democracy. Its leader, Aung San Suu Kyi, has been under house arrest for most of the past two decades.

China has kept close ties with the junta, but Beijing has also been frustrated by narcotics flowing from Myanmar into its southwest.