The construction of China’s largest single underground iron ore mine project under Ansteel Iron & Steel Group (Ansteel), the country’s second-largest steel producer, has kicked off on November 16, according to a release on the group’s official website.
With a total investment of Yuan 22.9 billion ($3.2 billion), the new Xi’anshan iron ore project is designed to produce some 30 million tonnes/year of run-of-mine (ROM) iron ore and more than 10 million t/y iron ore concentrates when it’s slated for operations in 2027, according to Dai Zhihao, general manager of Ansteel.
The mine, located in Anshan city in Northeast China’s Liaoning province where Ansteel is headquartered, hosts an iron ore reserve of 1.3 billion tonnes with an average Fe content of 34.1%, Mysteel Global learned from an online assessment by Liaoning Metallurgical Geological Exploration Bureau.
“The Xi’anshan iron ore project will speed up the development of China’s Cornerstone Plan and enhance the country’s capacity of iron ore supply,” the Ansteel Group’s release noted.
Promoted by China Iron and Steel Association early this year, the Cornerstone Plan is aimed to secure a stable supply of steelmaking raw materials for the healthy development of the domestic steel industry, as Mysteel Global reported.
Specifically, China’s domestic iron ore output should be boosted by a massive 100 million tonnes to 370 million tonnes by 2025, according to the master plan.
Shortly after the plan was made, local governments in China responded quickly and actively by laying out and carrying forward some key iron ore mining projects.
For example, Liaoning has vowed to increase 200 million tonnes of ROM iron ore output by 2025, according to the province’s official mineral resources development plans for 2021-25.
Liaoning, China’s No.2 iron ore mining province next to Hebei, produced about 130.5 million tonnes of ROM iron ore over January-October, up 10.8% on year, according to the data from the country’s National Bureau of Statistics (NBS).
The NBS data also showed that China’s fixed asset investment in the domestic mining industry was 8.1% higher on year during the first 10 months of this year.
Under such backdrop, the Xi’anshan iron ore project has made quickest-ever progress since its inception – it only took seven months for the project to be initiated, approved and started the construction – shortened by a surprising 29 months, all thanks to the support of governments at all levels, Mysteel Global learned from sources close to Ansteel.
The Xi’anshan iron ore project is under Ansteel Mining Co., Ltd., a subsidiary of Ansteel. The mining company hosts an annual concentrating capacity of 65 million t/y and can produce 22 million t/y of iron ore concentrates, according to Ansteel’s 2021 annual report.
Written by Lea Li, liye@mysteel.com
Edited by Zhenqi Yang, yangzhenqi@mysteel.com
This article has been published under an article exchange agreement between Mysteel Global and SteelMint.
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