China’s Luanchuan Molybdenum plans Hong Kong IPO
September 30, 2006 - Posted in Mining Services, Mining Stocks, Molybdenum Mining, Precious MetalLuoyang Luanchuan Molybdenum Group Inc., one of China’s biggest molybdenum producers, plans a Hong Kong initial public offering in early 2007, company officials said on Thursday.
The state-owned company, located in central China’s Henan Province, plans to list on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange to fund a planned smelter and mine expansion, the officials, speaking on condition of anonymity, told Reuters.
“The company plans to finish IPO preparations in mid-December and to officially kick off the IPO in January 2007,” an official at Luanchuan’s headquarters said by telephone.
A final decision on the size of the IPO will be made in October or November, the company officials said, declining to give an estimate.
Jinduicheng Molybdenum Group Co. Ltd., the company’s major domestic rival, is planning a Hong Kong IPO to raise about US$1 billion and aims to list there by the end of this year, sources told Reuters in August.
Luanchuan, which has annual production capacity of 20,000 tonnes of molybdenum concentrate, owns a molybdenum mine with reserves of 670,000 tonnes of metal in ore, according to the company’s official Web site (www.clcmo.com).
It recently acquired a gold, silver and lead mine from a local government, and will build a smelting facility that can produce 150,000 tonnes of nonferrous metals and precious metals annually, the company officials said.
In 2005, Luanchuan Molybdenum earned 1.487 billion yuan ($188 million) from its molybdenum sales, exporting production worth $152 million, the company said. Molybdenum is mainly used to toughen alloy steel.
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