From the foothills of the Qilian Mountains to the banks of the Yellow River, the cities of Jinchang, Baiyin, Lanzhou, and Wuwei, located in the central region of Gansu province, have joined forces through the nonferrous metals industry. By pooling their strengths and forming a industrial cluster, they have helped Gansu achieve a breakthrough in securing a national advanced manufacturing cluster designation.
The evolution has progressed from being driven by two leading provincial state-owned enterprises to coordinated operations involving over 340 small and medium-sized enterprises. The cluster has advanced from having production scale ranking among the top nationally to achieving world-class research and development capabilities. It has transformed from being a base for key mineral resource production into a highland for the development of the nonferrous metals industry. The Jinchang-Baiyin-Lanzhou-Wuwei nonferrous metals cluster now shines as a vivid example of Gansu developing new quality productive forces based on local conditions and building a modern industrial system.
**Linking the Chain: Deepening and Expanding the Industrial Cluster** At the foot of the Longshou Mountain in the Hexi Corridor, dark metallic ore is extracted from mines over 1,000 meters deep. At Jinchuan Group Co., Ltd., this ore undergoes smelting and electrolysis processes, eventually emerging from different production workshops as silver-white nickel plates, grayish cobalt plates, and golden copper plates. Inside the High-Precision Copper Strip Business Unit of Jinchuan Nickel Capital Industrial Co., Ltd., ultra-thin pure copper strips with a metallic sheen are steadily produced.
Jinchuan Group ranks second globally in nickel production, fourth in cobalt production, and third in China for copper production. Possessing the world's third-largest copper-nickel sulfide deposit, it has helped China overcome its historical nickel deficiency and turned Jinchang into a prominent "treasure basin" in the northwest.
On the banks of the Yellow River, approximately 300 kilometers from Jinchang, lies the "Copper City" of Baiyin, another city established around mining and related enterprises. Baiyin Nonferrous Group Co., Ltd. holds significant advantages in the copper, lead, zinc, and other nonferrous metals industries. "In the past, the two companies in these two cities had similar businesses and were competitive in certain areas, which constrained the efficiency of Gansu's nonferrous metals industry," said Zhang Yangcai, Director of the Jinchang Development and Reform Commission. The original intention behind Jinchang spearheading the creation of the Jinchang-Baiyin-Lanzhou-Wuwei cluster was to reduce internal competition while fully leveraging Lanzhou's R&D capabilities—which aggregates over 70% of the province's scientific and technological resources—and Wuwei's available industrial development space, thereby linking individual strengths into a cohesive chain and forming a collective force.
With clear positioning, efforts can be precise. In this blueprint, Jinchang and Baiyin serve as the core engines, Lanzhou is the R&D and production base, and Wuwei functions as the transformation and application base. Planning is one part, implementation is nine. The Gansu Provincial Party Committee and Government provided high-level support, designating the nickel-cobalt-copper new materials industry as the province's leading industry, establishing dedicated task forces, and promoting cluster development. With the participation of over 20 universities and research institutes, more than 120 key laboratories, and numerous industry enterprises, the "vision map" has been turned into a "realized scene." By the end of 2024, the Jinchang-Baiyin-Lanzhou-Wuwei nonferrous metals cluster was selected for the 2024 National Advanced Manufacturing Clusters list. In 2025, the cluster achieved an output value exceeding 380 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of approximately 30%.
**Forming a Fist: Achieving Breakthroughs in Key Areas** Inside the Heavy Ion Center of the Gansu Wuwei Tumor Hospital, medical physicists use China's first medically-used heavy ion accelerator with independent intellectual property rights. Through a high-precision 3D modeling system, they construct the spatial structure of human organs in real-time, analyze tumor locations, and formulate optimal treatment plans.
The clinical application of this equipment marks China as the fourth country globally capable of independent R&D and clinical application of heavy ion therapy systems. However, a key component material for the accelerator—high-purity oxygen-free copper—was long dependent on imports. To change this situation, Jinchuan Group, Lanzhou Taiji Ion Technology Co., Ltd., and Lanzhou University of Technology collaborated on research, successfully producing high-purity 4N5 oxygen-free copper plate and strip, accelerating the industrialization pace of the heavy ion accelerator.
"The establishment of the cluster aims to achieve complementary advantages between regions and enterprises, solving a series of challenges faced by industrial development," said Jin Hongxiang, Deputy General Manager of the Strategic Planning Department at Jinchuan Group. He noted that this breakthrough also relied on the cluster's integrated innovation system of "tackling key problems—platforms—talent." Currently, the cluster has established 34 national-level technological innovation platforms and attracted over 20 academicians from the Chinese Academy of Sciences and Chinese Academy of Engineering. It has become an important production base for nickel-cobalt-based new materials in China, with its product systems, industrial chains, and comprehensive technical level leading the industry.
Products like 0.05mm thick "peelable nickel," which filled a domestic gap and is exported overseas; 3.5-micron thick "peelable copper," setting new industry records; and ultra-fine electromagnetic wires with a diameter of 0.012mm, reaching international advanced manufacturing levels, are breakthroughs from this cluster reaching the world.
Professor Wei Lili from the School of Economics at Lanzhou University stated that the Jinchang-Baiyin-Lanzhou-Wuwei nonferrous metals cluster is based on its own resource endowment, serves national strategic needs, extends and strengthens industrial chains, accelerates innovation-driven development, and promotes integrated development. By forming a collective fist, it has achieved breakthroughs in key technologies.
**Tempered into Steel: Synergistic Upgrading for Quality and Efficiency** Visits to mining sites, production workshops, and R&D institutions reveal that since the cluster's formation, Jinchang, Baiyin, Lanzhou, and Wuwei have been continuously advancing a synergistic transformation towards high-end, intelligent, and green development, accelerating the shift from being a key mineral resource production base to a highland for nonferrous metals industry development.
Advancing towards high-end manufacturing has spurred comprehensive industrial growth. In Jinchang, raw materials once sold at low prices are now locally processed into high-value products through deep processing, becoming sought-after materials for new energy power batteries. In Lanzhou, key equipment and integrated solutions developed by Lanzhou LS Group Co., Ltd. cover the entire hydrogen energy产业链 from production, storage, transportation, refueling to application. Products like National VI standard automotive exhaust catalyst precursors developed by Lanzhou Jinchuan Science Park Co., Ltd. have captured over 40% market share. The cluster has now nurtured 2 national-level manufacturing champion enterprises, 9 "Little Giant" specialized and sophisticated SMEs, and 121 national high-tech enterprises.
Focusing on intelligence drives manufacturing quality and efficiency improvements. At the Northwest Lead-Zinc Smelter of Baiyin Group, the casting workshop has built a "5G+" digital workshop, increasing labor productivity fourfold. LS Group has established 3 smart factories, 9 digital workshops, and 6 smart production lines, with the numerical control rate of key processes reaching 65%. Gansu Hailiang New Energy Materials Co., Ltd., collaborating with the JD Industrial Internet platform, built a digital supply chain, compressing procurement cycles from 1-2 weeks to 2-3 days. "Currently, over 60% of enterprises in the cluster have digitized key business segments," said Wang Enfu, Director of the Jinchang Industry and Information Technology Bureau. By integrating 5G, big data, artificial intelligence, and other new-generation technologies with nickel, cobalt, and copper mining, beneficiation, smelting, and deep processing, the cluster's digital intelligence level ranks among the top domestically.
Emphasizing green development promotes energy conservation and carbon reduction in production. Jinchuan Group Nickel-Cobalt Co., Ltd.'s Nickel Smelter independently developed top-side combined blowing bath smelting technology, increasing system capacity by 30%, reducing comprehensive energy consumption by 40%, and cutting dust emissions by 20%. Gansu Hailiang improved its processes, reducing CO2 emissions per kilogram of copper foil produced by 90% compared to traditional methods. Jinchang, which annually produces millions of tons of sulfuric acid and calcium carbide slag from chlor-alkali waste, previously had to pay for external disposal. Now, by introducing companies like Gansu Bailian Chemical Co., Ltd., this former "burden" is locally utilized, transformed into developmental "wealth." The cluster currently includes 6 national-level green parks and 11 green factories.
Han Xianming, Director of the Gansu Provincial Department of Industry and Information Technology, stated that Gansu will continue to take concrete steps to strengthen industrial chains and foster clusters. Through a tiered cultivation system of "national-level leadership, provincial-level support, and specialized growth," the province aims to facilitate the smooth flow of various advanced production factors towards new quality productive forces, creating more advanced industrial clusters.
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