China group says $800 million Myanmar mine on track

A Chinese mining giant has said it is committed to an $800 million ferro-nickel mine in northern Myanmar, which officials said will eventually lift the impoverished southeast Asian nation's GDP by over 2 percent.

Executives from the China Non-Ferrous Metal Group (CNMC) told visiting Myanmar Prime Minister Thein Sein, a general in the ruling junta, they would strive to complete preparations for the big mine at Tagaungtaung in northern Myanmar as early as possible, the China Nonferrous Metal News reported on Tuesday.

The Chinese-language newspaper reached subscribers on Wednesday.

CNMC underscored the economic importance of the project and the support it has received from Chinese leaders seeking to shore up ties with Myanmar, also called Burma and largely shunned by Western governments.

"The Tagaungtaung ferro-nickel mine is the biggest cooperative project between China and Myanmar in the mining sector," the Group's general manager, Luo Tao, told Thien, who was attending a regional business forum on the southern Chinese island of Hainan, according to the paper.

The global slump and sharp falls in metals prices have forced several companies to abandon or put on hold their plans for new mines.

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