Jinchuan Group Limited, the largest integrated non-ferrous metallurgical and chemical engineering enterprise in Asia, has found a new copper-nickel deposit in Jiuquan city, Gansu province.

The proven deposit will largely increase the country's output of copper and nickel, and the preliminary exploration work has started.

Jinchuan will invest RMB 900 million initially in the exploration and mining facilities for the copper-nickel deposit. Upon the completion of the first phase, it will have a daily processing capacity of 3,000 tons of ore.

Jianchuan has started to prospect and explore the mining resources in Jiuquan as early as April 2006.

Currently, Jinchuan Group has an annual production capacity of 130,000 tons of nickel, 200,000 tons of copper, 6,000 tons of cobalt, 8,000 kilograms of platinum group metals (PGMs) and 1200,000 tons of chemical products.