Metal industry

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Description: This compendium focuses on recent developments in Myanmar?s metal casting and metal products industries. Attention is directed to the base metals rather than to bronze, gold, and silver used in traditional craftwork. Apart from three small iron and steel mills operated as state enterprises, a modern copper cathode production plant at a mine near Monywa and foundries attached to several state factories, the base metal casting industry is carried out in scores of small private workshops throughout the country. The only mills in the country capable of processing crude iron are the small factory at Anisakhan near Pyin-U-Lwin, the Ywama steel mill at Insein and the mill belonging to the military owned Myanmar Economic Corporation near Aunglan in central Myanmar. None of these come close to meeting the country?s annual consumption of more than half a million tons of iron and steel. It is unlikely that a large national steel mill be built in the near future. As evidenced by several articles in this collection, the current trend is towards small, industry-specific foundries like those presently being opened in the industrial zones in Monywa, Mandalay and Taung-gyi, which are being jointly financed by the private sector and the government. Copper mined at a large open-pit mine near Monywa is now being converted into copper cathode sheets at a modern facility built in the late nineties by a joint venture company owned by the government and Ivanhoe Mines of Vancouver, Canada. Production is targeted to reach 40,000 tons in 2005 with the promise of the doubling of production in the near future, using ore from a nearby deposit, untapped to date. Unfortunately, all of the high quality copper cathode that is produced is exported to other markets in East Asia. The same situation applies to the tin smelter operated by a Wa mining company near the border with Yunnan. Similarly, China would presumably absorb all of the ferro-nickel produced at a processing plant in Tagaung area of Upper Myanmar , if a mine proposed for the area is developed.
Source/publisher: Courier Information Services
2005-05-15
Date of entry/update: 2005-05-15
Grouping: Individual Documents
Category: Metal industry
Language: English
Format : pdf doc
Size: 588.87 KB 1.26 MB
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