(Yicai Global) Dec. 26 -- Zhejiang Huayou Cobalt will build a production line for electro-deposited copper in the Democratic Republic of the Congo through its wholly-owned unit in the Central African country to improve the efficiency of its resource use and promote local economic growth. 

The firm's board has approved its investment of USD147 million to construct the electro-deposited copper project in the Lukuni region in the country's south. It will have an annual capacity of 30,000 tons from a mine to which the company has received grant of mineral rights, it said in a report filed with the Shanghai stock exchange yesterday.

The facility is projected to start operating at the end of next September.  

Huayou Cobalt, which produces and sells cobalt chemicals and smelts non-ferrous metals, began to expand its business in Africa from 2003 and has established a development system for cobalt and copper resources which includes the supply of raw materials, smelting and dressing in the country's major mining areas. The Zhejiang-based company supplied itself with 70 percent of its needed raw material from its cobalt mine in 2015, thus effectively guaranteeing the supply for its domestic manufacturing base. 

Developing the electro-deposited copper project will help improve the efficiency of its resource utilization, per the filing.

Electro-deposited copper finds wide use in the machine manufacturing and electrical equipment and industries.

Editor: Ben Armour