BEIJING, Oct 8: Pakistan’s annual export of copper to China is expected to reach around $70 million by the end of December 2005.

The export of copper was amounted to $48 million during January-August 2005, according to the Chinese Customs Authority. “We hope the export will reach $70 million by December 2005, said a senior Pakistani official in Beijing.

As compared to the previous year, the export of copper from the Saindak Mineral Project was showing an upward trend, he added.

“China will also get a big quantity of zinc and lead from Pakistan, said Wang Jianjun, a senior executive of Chinese Zhuzhou Smelting Company. The company would take delivery of 50,000 tons of zinc-in-concentrate and 20,000 tons of lead a year from Pakistan’s Duddar Mine, which will start production in 2007.

Zhuzhou owns a stake of less than 40 per cent of the mine, he said, but would take its entire output. The majority owner of the mine is the state-owned China Metallurgical Construction Corp.

In an interview with APP, another official said China would be spending $25 million to further expand the existing production capacity of Saindak project.

“This is part of growing cooperation between the two countries in the mineral sector. The expansion project will be completed within a period of one year. It will further enhance its production capacity by 30 per cent.”

Meanwhile, an official of MRDL Company of China said that the company was increasing its cooperation with Pakistan in the mineral sector. MRDL is a subsidiary of Metallurgical Construction Company of China (MCC) operating in the Saindak project, with an initial investment of $26 million since August 2003.

He said that the Sino-Pak co-operation in the mineral sector had opened up new business prospects and it was hoped that the Saindak project would contribute tremendously in promoting their economic ties.

The MCC and Pakistan had already signed an agreement to develop Duddar Lead Zinc project in Lasbela, Balochistan, with an investment of $70 million. The company will produce 132,000 tons of lead and zinc metals concentrate for exports annually.

He hoped that the Chinese companies would prefer to import copper from Pakistan because of better quality and attractive prices.

China’s demand for copper has increased greatly due to the rapid economic development and big expansion of infrastructure construction, said Tang Jing, an expert with the Tongling Nonferrous Metal Research Institute.

The country’s demand for copper products in the past decade grew by more than 9 per cent annually.—APP