China has allowed more private firms to blend more polluting complex copper concentrates domestically as the country that smelts half the world’s copper struggles to secure enough standard grades, three people with knowledge of the matter said.
China is the world’s largest copper consumer but only the fourth biggest mined producer, meaning it has to import concentrate – a material produced from crushed copper ore which is later processed into refined metal – to meet its needs.Its import standards allow only around 20% of the world’s copper concentrates to be shipped into the country, with the remainder considered too polluting.
Foreign traders, also barred from processing polluting concentrates within China, have to blend concentrates in South Korea, Malaysia and Taiwan prior to sale to Chinese smelters. One of them includes the new blending facility in Dalian port, the Liaoning provincial government of northeast China said on Nov. 1.