Dataigou Iron Ore Mine, Asia’s largest single iron ore mine, was put into production on March 5, 2014.

The operating depth of the first pit is up to 1250 meters below the surface and the estimated length of the project is about 22 months. The total investment exceeded 100 million yuan.

The Bureau of Geology and Mineral Resources of Liaoning Province has begun to research Dataigou Iron Ore Mine since 2005. This massive project was approved by the Ministry Land of and Resources in 2006 and the exploration started in the same year when the first iron ore was discovered.

In 2013, Benxi Dataigou Mining Co., Ltd, a joint venture by the Liaoning Institute of Geology and Mineral Investigation and Shenzhen Yizhongxin Mining Investment Co., Ltd., submitted a detailed report about their investigation into the Dataigou Iron Ore Mine to the Liaoning Ministry of Land and Resources for review.

The report has indicated the total reserve of Dataigou Iron Ore Mine exceeds 5 billion tons, which makes it the largest single iron ore mine found in Asia and one of the largest in the world. The massive amount of iron ore reserve was widely, deeply and steeply buried underground, requiring state-of-the-art exploration technology to be applied. The estimated average grade of the iron ore is 32% Fe while some of the high-grade ore could reach 50% Fe.

According to senior mining engineer Shoucheng Zhang, among the 35 tunnels drilled, most iron ore was found at around 1000 meters below the surface and the deepest was found at over 2000 meters underground. These drillings have not yet penetrated through the ore body, which indicated the tremendous thickness and even grade of the iron ore body.

Mr Zhang said 18 more pits will be drilled, expecting an annual production of 30 million tons and a production life span of over 100 years.