BEIJING (Asian Metal) 6 Jan 21 - With a mining capacity of nearly 300,000t of chrome ore per year, South Africa BI Commodities will build an ore washing plant in March 2021 to produce chrome concentrate and expects to produce almost 10,000t of chrome concentrate per month after the ore washing plant is put into operation, a source from the company revealed.

The source said, "We will finish the building of the ore washing plant in March 2021 and will also start chrome concentrate production that month, expecting to produce nearly 10,000t of chrome concentrate per month after the plant goes into operation." Now the company just sells South African chrome ore 38%min, of which the price is ZAR1,100/t in warehouse Johannesburg, the same as late last week. It won't sell its chrome ore 30%min inventory before processing it into chrome concentrate 40%min. The source, who disclosed that the current covid-19 in South Africa doesn't bring great influences on chrome ore mining and transportation, predicts that prices of South African chrome ore would keep firm in the coming week as suppliers hold back from selling at the moment.

With a mining capacity of 300,000t of chrome ore per year, the company mined nearly 100,000t of the material in 2020 and expects that the mining volume would be around 8,000t in January 2021, steady MOM. It holds no stocks at the moment, unchanged from the same period of last month.

Mainstream prices of South African chrome ore 38%min stood at ZAR1,000-1,100/t in warehouse Johannesburg this Tuesday, steady from late last week.