China discovers 1 bln tons of iron deposits

That should hold them for a while as long as they have smelting capacity. And it appears they do.

Geologists have discovered an iron ore deposit estimated to be at least 1 billion tons in northeast China's Liaoning Province after more than two years of exploration, local authorities said on Thursday.

The newly-found deposit, between 1,280 meters and 1,500 meters underground, is at the Pingshan District, Benxi City, said Wang Wenqing, deputy head of the Liaoning Provincial Survey Academy of Geology and Mineral Resources.

"We plan to spend two to three years finding out the actual reserves," Wang said.

"But we will have to wait even longer before we can start excavating."

Initial exploration show that the iron ore is mainly hematite or magnetite, and the average iron content is 34.68 percent, said Yu Wenli, head of the Liaoning Provincial Bureau of Geology and Mineral Resources Exploration.

"The deposit can be exploited for more than 30 years," he said.

Now tell me this. Can there be over production? China is to steel what OPEC is to oil. They can control the supplies world wide to protect the prices.

Then there are the Chinese shipbuilding yards which probably don't use much wood to build ships, new production of automobiles for export and domestic sales, exploding construction requiring steel. Nope. It looks like China is doing just fine.

Courtesy link to Xinua.