Planning of Ansteel Group's 92 Million-Ton Iron Ore Expansion Project receives approval from MIIT

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Researched by Industrial Info Resources (Sugar Land, Texas)--Planning for Anshan Iron and Steel Group Corporation's (Ansteel Group) (Anshan, Liaoning) Old Mining Zone expansion project received approval from the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT) recently, Ansteel Group announced on March 29, 2010.

Ansteel Mining Corporation (Anshan), the professional arm in iron ore mining of Ansteel Group, is the largest iron ore mining company in China. The company owns one underground and six open-air iron ore mines, with a total annual production capacity of 45 million metric tons in raw ore, and an annual output of 15 million metric tons in processed fine ore, accounting for 6% of the total iron ore output in China.

However, construction of these mines occurred mostly in the 1920s to the 1950s. Following years of exploitation and the increasing volume in production output, these mines have reached the peak of attenuation in iron ore output. It's necessary to expand the production capacity through innovation and expansion.

Ansteel Group is in Liaoning, a province with the largest iron ore reserves in China. There is a proven iron ore reserve of more than 8,800 million metric tons and a resource volume of 17,000 million metric tons in Anshan and Liaoyang, two adjacent cities of Ansteel, accounting for 13.04% of the total proven iron ore reserves in China.

As reported, the total investment required for the implementation will be about $2.15 billion, which will be fully financed by Ansteel Group. According to the plans, the production capacity of Ansteel Mining Corporation will be doubled in 10 years with the implementation of the Old Mining Zone expansion project. Namely, the annual output of raw iron ore and fine iron ore will reach 68.5 million metric tons and 23 million metric tons in 2015, an increase of 22.5 million metric tons and 8 million metric tons from the existing output. By 2020, the annual output of raw iron ore will reach 92 million metric tons, which could meet more than 75% of the iron ore demand in Ansteel.

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