CITIC Heavy Machinery Company Ltd (CITICHM) has broken the monopoly of foreign companies in supplying large-sized semi-autogenous mills and flow-type ball mills by winning a contract to build four mills for China National Gold Group Corporation (CNGGC), beating international rivals.

The two companies signed a contract valued at 210 million yuan (US$27.52 million) on Saturday, in the first step toward the construction of the second-largest copper mine in China.

The two semi-autogenous mills, with a diameter of 8.8 meters and a length of 4.8 meters each, and the two flow-type ball mills, with a diameter of 6.2 meters and a length of 9.5 meters each, are the largest mills in the country.

They will be built with independent intellectual property rights of CITICHM.

In recent years, CITICHM has gained the technology of building large-sized mine-use autogenous mills and ball mills through cooperation with leading companies in the world. Its products now are popular in the world market.

"We will push forward the growth with innovation and forge our own brands in the domestic market," said Ren Qinxin, the company's general manager.

The four mills will be delivered to the Wunugetushan project of CNGGC near Manzhouli, a border city with Russia in the Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region.

The Wunugetushan project has a proven reserve of 1.85 million tons of copper, 400,000 tons of molybdenum and 850 million tons of ore. The copper mine will be built into the second-largest mine in China in full operation, next only to Dexing copper mine in East China's Jiangxi Province. Dexing copper has a daily treatment capacity of 100,000 tons.

It's the first time for CNGGC to blaze into the copper sector. The group has invested 2.8 billion yuan in the project.

The first phase of the project will enable the company to have a daily copper treatment capacity of 30,000 tons.