CDB provides $54 million loan for Duddar Lead-Zinc Mine Project

On March 22, 2002, China Metallurgical Construction Group Corp (MCC) signed an Memorandum of Understanding with Pakistan Minerals Development Company (PMDC) on the project development. On November 3, 2003, an agreement for the development of the Duddar zinc-lead project was signed, with a total investment worth US$72.64 million. The agreement stipulated that PMDC would be responsible for the construction of external roads leading to the project site. In addition, the Pakistan government would convert the Duddar zinc-lead mine area into an export processing zone (EPZ). On March 5, 2004, PMDC transferred its stake in the contract to MCC Resources Development Limited (MRD), which is a wholly owned subsidiary of MCC, authorized to register in Pakistan by the Ministry of Commerce of PRC. In order to manage the project more efficiently, MCC entered into an agreement with several other Chinese companies. With the approval of the Ministry of Commerce of PRC, MCC Duddar Minerals Development Company Pvt. Limited (MDMD), a joint venture of the 3 companies, was registered on November 23, 2004. The consortium was composed of MCC (51%), Hunan Zhuzhou Non-ferrous Metals Smelter Co. Ltd. (34%), and Hunan Huangshaping Lead and Zinc Mine Co. (15%). On January 6, 2005, the company signed a financing agreement with China Development Bank. The consortium signed a contract to borrow US$54 million from the China Development Bank to finance the development of the Duddar lead and zinc mine in Pakistan. The loan was expected to fund 80% of the total investment of $72.6 million in the project. The offer has been made by a visiting delegation of China Development Bank, headed by its Provincial Chief, Mei Jia Xiang in a meeting with Managing Director, Pakistan Mineral Development Corporation (PMDC) Brig. Khalid Sajjad Khokhar in Islamabad. The Duddar project has a designed annual processing capacity of 660,000 tons of ores, including mining and concentration processes. Its final products will be zinc and lead concentrates. The mines have a depth limit of 900 meters underground. The project officially started construction in January 2005 and will continue operations until 2023. On December 29, 2019, a ceremony was held at the Duddar lead-zinc project to celebrate its completion.

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