China will contain blind investment and low-level expansion in the copper smelting industry via enhancing macro-economic control and rationalizing the industrial structure.

"The government will not approve the construction of copper smelting projects that go against the industrial policy," said an official of the National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC), a key economic body which oversees the country's economic development.

Newly-built and renovated copper smelting projects should be capable of producing 100,000 tons or more a year, and should have at least 25 percent of the raw materials coming from their own mines, said the commission.

They are also required to have the rate of capital fund reach 35 percent or more.

The energy consumption of a newly-built crude-copper smelting project should not exceed 550 kilograms of standard coal for one-ton output.

The NDRC asked departments and enterprises concerned to implement related policies and regulations on land, environmental protection and financing, upgrade out-dated technological equipment.

Any companies that fail to meet the environmental protection standard will be shut down, said the commission.

Investment in the copper smelting industry has grown too fast due to rocketing copper price in international and domestic markets, according to the NDRC.

In the first 10 months of 2006, fixed-asset investment materialized in the copper smelting industry totaled 8.08 billion yuan (1.03 billion U.S. dollars), up 72.3 percent year on year, with investment in copper mining soaring 127.7 percent to 3.37 billion yuan.