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Chicoms getting controlling interest in NORK mineral resources
From East Asia Intel, subscription.Chinese companies have bought a controlling stake in a major North Korean mine, boosting its influence over its communist client in the event of the collapse of the Kim Jong-Il regime. The ChiComs will run the NORK horse till it dies, then take over the pasture. Beijing has already secured agreements providing it access to a number of other mines in resource-rich North Korea. Hebei-based Luanhe Industrial Group and another Chinese company signed a deal giving them a 51 percent stake in the North's Hyesan Youth Cooper Mine in Yanggan Province, according to Seoul's Yonhap News Agency. The contract was signed on Nov. 27 in Pyongyang, the agency said, citing industry sources in Beijing. Hyesan Youth Cooper Mine, located near the North Korean-Chinese border, is one of the North's largest copper mines. It is estimated to have 420,000 tons of copper, with 250,000 tons that are buried 600 meters from the surface already being mined. Roughly 2,000 tons of copper ore are excavated daily. The reserve tonnage figure seems wrong. Mining 2000 tons of ORE per day seams reasonable, being that it may be anywhere from say 10% to 1% copper. Normally ore bodies are measured in tons with the equivalent percent of copper. Maybe they mean that in the ground there is 420,000 tons of the equivalent of pure copper. Posted by: Alaska Paul 2007-01-06 |
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