ASA Metals, the joint venture between China's Eastern Asia Metals Investment and the Limpopo Economic Development Enterprise, plans to sink two new chrome-ore mine shafts and build a processing facility in South Africa, the company announced on Thursday.

The company has mining rights to more than 47-million tons of unexploited chromite resources, MD Richard Zhang said in an emailed copy of a speech delivered earlier in the day.

The company plans to build a 1,2-million tons a year beneficiation plant, a 600 000 t/y pelletising and sintering plant, two 66 MVA closed submerged arc furnaces and a raw-material handling and batching facility, Zhang said.

Some 70% of the world’s chrome resources lie within South African rocks.

The world’s biggest ferrochrome companies, Xstrata and Samancor Chrome, produce the majority of their product in the country.

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