The company’s goal for the added investment  was to become the largest global rare earth enterprise in the next five years, said its deputy general manager Yang Xinglong.

The company would expand with the restructuring of mining and processing companies in Ganzhou City, Jiangxi Province, a major rare earth production base, with an investment of 2 billion yuan over five years.

China Minmetals Rare Earth’s  targeted  annual sales revenue is  10 billion yuan in five years, said Yang.

The Ganzhou-based company was founded in late November last year by China Minmetals Nonferrous Metals Co., Ltd, a subsidiary of China Minmetals Corporation, the country’s main metals and minerals group, and two private companies in Jiangxi — Hongjin Rare Earth Co., Ltd. and Dingnan Dahua New Material Resources Co.,Ltd. — with a registered capital of 837 million yuan.

China Minmetals Nonferrous Metals owns 40 percent of the company.

The global financial crisis has dealt a heavy blow to the nonferrous metals industry. Since October last year, many small rare earth companies suffered big losses and had to stop production. All of Ganzhou’s 88 rare earth mining plants and 90 percent of its rare earth processing factories had suspended operations, the association said.

« Our sales revenue was 410 million yuan last year, down 90 million yuan from our target, » said Wei Jianzhong, director of Hongjin Rare Earth. « Our revenue would exceed 500 million yuan if there were no economic slowdown.

The processing capacity of China Minmetals Rare Earth is 8,500 tonnes, which it plans to expand  in  three to five years to 13,500 tonnes, the world’s largest.

Rare earths are widely used in the aviation industry and manufacturing. China has a proven rare earth reserve of 52 million tonnes, accounting for about 58 percent of the world’s proven reserves.

Konaxis