Jinchuan Group
Many years ago, the discovery of a piece of malachite marked the beginning of China's "Nickel Capital", Jinchang city in Gansu province. As a Fortune Global 500 company, Jinchuan Group, headquartered in Jinchang, focuses on the development of four major industrial chains: nickel-cobalt, copper, power batteries, and chlor-alkali chemicals. Now, Jinchuan Group aims to double its revenue and total industrial output value by the end of its 14th Five-Year Plan (2021-25). In the first half of 2024, Jinchuan Group made 206.4 billion yuan ($28.38 billion) in revenue, an increase of 22.6 billion yuan ($3.11 billion) year-on-year, with total taxes and profits amounting to more than 9.9 billion yuan ($1.37 billion).
With technological innovation being the core driver for the company's growth, the group has obtained multiple proprietary technologies in areas such as pure nickel strips, electric heating alloys, and precision alloys, promoting the industrialization of high-value-added products. In 2023, Jinchuan Group produced more than 60 tons of "hand-torn nickel strips", marking a new phase in pure nickel foil production technology. After a decade of efforts, Jinchuan Group has successfully achieved large-scale production of pure nickel foil, filling a domestic gap and exporting it overseas.
A Jinchuan Group worker operates a machine producing nickel strips
Jinchuan Group has also overcome several technical challenges in fields such as pure nickel strips for lithium-ion batteries and high-performance forged plates, advancing the industrialization of ultra-high-purity nickel-cobalt-copper materials for high-end semiconductor chips. In 2024, the group plans to invest 5.4 billion yuan ($742 million) in technology, a 10.2 percent increase year-on-year.
Industrially, the company is expanding the scale of its nickel-cobalt, copper, and precious metals industries through project investments and technological upgrades, while accelerating the transition to battery materials and deep processing. Major projects such as the optimization of the nickel refining pressurization system and the pyrogenic production line for complex nickel materials are now in operation.
Jinchuan district of Jinchang city has been named one of Gansu's top 10 county-level economies for three consecutive years. The group's 400,000-ton/year intelligent copper electrolysis project in the Hexipu Industrial Park is expected to become a key driver for high-quality economic development in Jinchuan district.
