China Hongda resumes quake-hit zinc operations

SINGAPORE, May 23 (Reuters) - A nonferrous metals unit of China's Sichuan Hongda Co has resumed operations halted after a deadly earthquake on May 12, the company said on Friday.

Sichuan Hongda, which operates 100,000 tonnes of annual zinc smelting capacity, is the biggest producer of the metal in the northern province of Sichuan.

"Our nonferrous metals subsidiary resumed production on May 21," the firm said in a statement.

The subsidiary operates a zinc mine. The company did not say how much output was lost because of the production stoppage.

Its zinc smelter is capable of producing about 8,333 tonnes of refined zinc each month and is located in Deyang city, around 50 km (31.07 miles) from the epicentre of the earthquake in Sichuan that left nearly 80,500 people dead or missing.

Last week, Hongda said the listed firm's nonferrous metals production facilities had been seriously damaged.

The earthquake affected up to 500,000 tonnes of zinc production capacity in Sichuan and the southern provinces of Gansu and Shaanxi.

Some zinc plants in the affected areas, such as Hanzhong Bayi Zinc, restarted facilities as power supplies came back. On Tuesday, state-owned research group Antaike estimated about 350,000 tonnes of capacity remained shut.

(Reporting by Polly Yam; Editing by Clarence Fernandez)

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