Baosteel, Jinchuan to invest in Philippines nickel project

With a view to meeting its raw materials requirements for stainless steel production, China's largest steelmaker Baoshan Iron and Steel Group (Baosteel) is cooperating with the nickel mining group Jinchuan and the China Development Bank in an investment in a Philippines-based nickel mine. For this purpose, the Philippines government authorities and representatives from Baosteel and its partners inked a memorandum of understanding, which has been on the agenda of the interested parties since 2004. The investment in the mine located on the Philippines' southern island of Mindanao is expected to total $1 billion. China is not very rich in terms of nickel production with approximately 90,000 metric tons in total output per annum. The Jinchuan Group accounts for approximately 90 percent of this figure. Meanwhile, Baosteel's stainless steel production capacity is approximately 1 million metric tons.