The Ramu Nickel Cobalt Project, Papua New Guinea

The Ramu Nickel Cobalt Project, Papua New Guinea

The China Metallurgical Construction Group (MCC), the country's largest metallurgical engineering enterprise last March signed an agreement with Papua New Guinea to "develop" the highly controvesial Ram Nickel Cobalt Project . It will cost $800 million and is funded by the Chinese government and MCC, along with Jilin Haorong Nonferrous Metals Group (previously Jilin Nickel) and Jinchuan Group.

The project is scheduled to start construction next April and commence production in March 2009, with capacities of 32,800 tons nickel and 3,200 tons cobalt a year.

[Source: Interfax China, November 10 2006]