BEIJING - China Nonferrous Metal Mining Co(Group) (CNMC), the country's non-ferrous metal giant, is expecting two of its major overseas projects to begin operation this year, said Luo Tao, general manager of the group.

The Chinese state owned miner's $340-million wet copper smelting project in Zambia, which is designed to provide an annual output of 41,000 tonnes of copper cathode, is expected to start operation by the end of this year, Luo told Xinhua.

Further, the group's nickel mining and smelting project in Myanmar will start trial operation in July, which is estimated to run with an annual production of 850,000 tonnes of ferronickel, he said.

The CNMC aims to make a profit of at least 2 billion yuan (about $307.7 million) and sales revenue of 100 billion yuan this year, with sales of non-ferrous metal products exceeding 1 million tonnes, said Luo.

The CNMC currently owns more than 20 million tonnes of non-ferrous metal resources, 300 million tons of bauxite resources, 14 mines, five smelting plants, one economic cooperation zone and four listed companies outside China.