Yunnan Tin Co plans to raise up to 4.08 billion yuan ($634 million) in an A-share offering to undisclosed investors to finance its plans to acquire mining assets and expand copper and lead smelting capacities. Yunnan Tin plans to use 1.135 billion yuan of the proceeds to develop a 1.5 million tpy copper-tungsten project currently controlled by its parent Yunnan Tin Holding Group and invest 1.14 billion yuan into a 100,000tpy Ausmelt copper smelter project, both in Yunnan province, according to a statement on the Shenzhen stock exchange on Tuesday. The company, which received government approval for the smelter in December 2008, did not say when it expects to complete the projects.

YTC also plans to spend 170 million yuan of the share offering proceeds on land for both the copper smelter and a proposed 100,000 tpy lead smelter. Of the remainder, it plans to channel 835 million yuan into three mineral exploration projects in Yunnan’s Gejiu district. It is estimated that the resource in the exploration projects would be 828,500 tonnes, including 244,800 tonnes of tin, 552,400 tonnes of copper and 31,300 tonnes of tungsten. The project will last four years and is expected to add 25,000 tonnes of tin, 200,000 tonnes of copper and 25,000 tonnes of tungsten to the resources after the detailed exploration.

YTC, the global largest tin producer by output, also reported a strong increase in financial performance today. Its net profit in the first was up by 93% to 354 million yuan. Operating revenue in the period also surged 40% y-o-y to 6.357 billion yuan.