(Xinhua)
Updated: 2007-08-23 11:14

DAKAR - Mauritania's National Mining and Industrial Company (SNIM) has clinched a deal to export 1.5 million tons of iron to China annually over the next seven years, according to information reaching here Wednesday.  

The deal, which was concluded between the company and a Chinese company, China Minmetals Corporation, was signed by SNIM's Chief Executive Officer Mohamed Ali Ould Sidi Mohamed and Wang Qingtang, vice-president of the Chinese company, according to the same sources.  

Last week, the company also entered into a similar deal with an American company Cargill, which will see the company supply 1 million ton of iron annually to China over a five-year period.

The SNIM, a state utility charged with overseeing iron-mining activities in Zouerate, northern Mauritania, exports about 12 million tons of the mineral annually.  

The latest agreement will enable the company to commence mining activities at M'Haoudat 4 mine, 60 km north of Zouerate, which was discovered in 1987 but had seen little activity owing to high levels of phosphorous at the ore.  

Founded in 1950, the China Minmetals Corporation, which has operations in about 22 countries, is specialized in the importation and exportation of minerals and metals. The company is 70 percent owned by the Chinese government and recorded a turnover of US$18.9 billion in 2006.