Dugald River zinc mine in Australia begins commercial production

BEIJING - China Minmetals Corporation (CMC), the country's largest metals and minerals group, announced Wednesday that its Dugald River zinc mine project in Australia had started commercial production from May 1.

The Dugald River zinc mine, located near Cloncurry in Queensland, is one of the largest and highest-grade zinc mines in the world, with an annual mining and dressing capacity of 1.7 million metric tons of ore, and output of more than 170,000 tons of zinc, according to the CMC. The mine has a service life of over 25 years.

It took less than six months for the project to start commercial production since it was formally completed and officially put into operation in November last year, showing the corporation's strong capability in building and operating world-class mining assets, according to the CMC.

The CMC recorded its highest ever revenue and profits in 2017. The corporation raked in 500 billion yuan (about $78.9 billion) in revenue last year, up 14 percent from the 2016 level. Total profits jumped 222 percent to 13 billion yuan.

The corporation witnessed rapid growth after taking over China Metallurgical Group Corporation in late 2015.

In 2016, the CMC reported operating income of 435.5 billion yuan, ranking 120th in the Fortune Global 500 and first among metal enterprises.