China to start mining operations at 10 mnt iron ore mine

The operation of an iron ore project with a designed production capacity of more than 10 million tonnes/year of iron ore concentrates will soon commence in Northeast China's Liaoning province, an official with the project confirmed.

The iron ore mine is located in Sishanling district in southeast Liaoning, located about 100 km east of the provincial steel hub of Anshan, home of Ansteel Group, one of China's largest steel companies. The mine boasts proven reserves of about 2.5 billion tonnes of iron ore, grading at 31.19% Fe on average, making it China's largest iron ore mine in terms of proven reserves.

The project consists of two phases, with the construction of the first phase basically completed at the end of 2022, enabling the production of 15 million t/y of run-of-mine iron ore and the production of 5.07 million t/y of iron ore concentrates with the average Fe grade of 67-69%, Mysteel Global learned.

Once the first phase is commissioned, it is expected to yield around 1 million tonnes of iron ore concentrates in 2023, according to the project plan.

The Sishanling iron ore project is a crucial part in China's Cornerstone Plan, launched by the China Iron and Steel Association last year which aims to secure a stable supplies of domestic steelmaking raw materials, as Mysteel Global reported.

"With the accelerated development of the Cornerstone Plan, China has seen a marked improvement in the country's capacity for iron ore supply," a market watcher based in North China's Tangshan said.

According to Mysteel's calculation, China's self-sufficiency ratio of iron ore increased by 0.22 percentage point on year in 2022 to 20.44%, the highest for the past five years. Specifically, the country's self-sufficiency ratio of iron ore concentrates gained 1.52 percentage points on year to 71.55%, and that of pellets rose 3.37 percentage points on year to 93.24%.

"As a key project in the Cornerstone plan, the Sishanling Mine will make a greater contribution to China's iron ore supply in 2023," the Tangshan-based analyst commented.

Mine construction is being undertaken by Beijing Jianlong Heavy Industry Group, a steel conglomerate whose businesses cover steel production and mining, shipbuilding and equipment manufacturing. It boasts over 35 million tonnes of crude steel capacity with steelworks in North China's Hebei, Shanxi and Inner Mongolia, Northeast China's Heilongjiang and Jilin province and Northwest China's Ningxia, as well as Eastern Steel Sdn. Bhd in Terengganu, Malaysia, as Mysteel Global has reported.

Written by Anthea Shi, shihui@mysteel.com

Edited by Zhenqi Yang, yangzhenqi@mysteel.com

This article has been published under an article exchange agreement between Mysteel Global and SteelMint.