Innovators break foreign monopoly on copper

"There are no shortcuts in scientific research. You have to build from the basics, step by step."

For Wang Yanfeng, general manager of Jinchuan Group Precision Copper Co, those sentiments are more than just words; they are a guiding principle she has followed for over three decades.

That principle was put to the test in 2021, when overseas supplies of high-purity oxygen-free copper, a critical material used in heavy-ion accelerators for cancer treatment, were disrupted.

The timing couldn't have been more inconvenient. Heavy-ion accelerator production had already been established as Gansu province's signature high-end manufacturing industry. At the time, Lanzhou Ion Therapy Co, one of China's leading developers of the technology, was ramping up production to meet growing domestic and international demand. And without a stable supply of the copper, deliveries of the equipment could have been delayed.

Wang and her team were tasked with developing the material themselves. "We honestly had no confidence at the beginning," Wang said. "There was no domestic experience to learn from, and foreign technology was completely blocked."

Rather than waiting for specialized vacuum equipment or outside assistance, Wang's team chose a different path. They improved the process from raw materials to production, tightening impurity control at every stage while upgrading existing production lines with new protective technologies.

They simultaneously tested multiple technical routes and refined each step based on performance results. Some experiments went on late into the night, only for the next round of tests to begin the following morning. After more than a dozen rounds of trials, a breakthrough was achieved. The approach enabled Jinchuan to produce 4N5 high-purity oxygen-free copper without relying on costly vacuum manufacturing, a breakthrough that significantly shortened development time and reduced production costs by about 30 percent.

By 2024, the company's 4N5 oxygen-free copper had fully matched the performance of imported products. Today, the material not only supports China's heavy-ion accelerator projects but is also used in semiconductors, electronics and other emerging industries. In recognition of her contribution, Wang was honored as one of the outstanding members of the Communist Party of China earlier this year.

She insists the achievement was never about a single individual. More than 80 percent of the project's core team are Party members. "From the R&D team to the pilot production team, Party members were always on the front line," Wang said. "Their leadership by example and willingness to take on the toughest tasks made all the difference."

She still remembers weekends spent in the workshop, where engineers worked through the night, waiting for test results before immediately adjusting the next production process.

"Once a task was assigned, everyone simply got to work," she said. "No complaints. No hesitation."

The determination behind the breakthrough was forged long before Wang became a company executive. After graduating with a degree in electrical automation in 1994, she joined Jinchuan as a maintenance engineer. The factory floor became her classroom, where she followed technicians through equipment installation and commissioning, learning not only how machines worked but also how materials were made.

"The equipment serves the process, and the process serves the product," she said. "The more I understood the equipment, the more I wanted to understand how better materials could be made."

That curiosity gradually led her from equipment maintenance toward materials research. Over the next three decades, Wang helped transform Jinchuan from a conventional copper processor into a producer of high-end strategic materials.

One key milestone was the development of large-diameter seamless cupronickel pipes for marine engineering. Built on more than two decades of technological accumulation, Jinchuan's products have reached internationally leading standards, replacing imported products while also serving customers around the world.

The years of steady accumulation also laid the technical foundation for the later breakthrough in high-purity oxygen-free copper.

Today, alongside managing one of China's leading precision copper producers, Wang spends much of her time mentoring young engineers. She often shares with them the lesson that has defined her own career. "There are no shortcuts in scientific research," she said. "Real innovation begins on the factory floor."