China's newly founded rare earth giant said on Thursday it will invest 300 million to 400 million yuan(US$44 million to US$58 million) this year to improve the domestic industry's competitiveness.

The aim was to become the largest global rare earth enterprise in the next five years, said China Minmetals Rare Earth Co., Ltd. deputy general manager Yang Xinglong.

The company would expand with the restructuring of mining and processing companies in Ganzhou City, Jiangxi Province, a major rare earth production base, with an investment of 2 billion yuan over five years.

China Minmetals Rare Earth also aimed for annual sales revenue of 10 billion yuan in five years, said Yang.

Any oxide of a lanthanide (atomic numbers 57 through 71) is called a rare earth.

The Ganzhou-based company was founded in late November last year by China Minmetals Nonferrous Metals Co., Ltd, a subsidiary of China Minmetals Corporation, the country's main metals and minerals group, and two private companies in Jiangxi -- Hongjin Rare Earth Co., Ltd. and Dingnan Dahua New Material Resources Co.,Ltd. -- with a registered capital of 837 million yuan.

China Minmetals Nonferrous Metals owns 40 percent of the company.

The company had begun improving its finance management and riskcontrol system and drafting its sale policies, Yang said.

The global financial crisis has dealt a heavy blow to the nonferrous metals industry. Since October last year, domestic rare earth-related products have seen a sharp fall in prices, with that of rare earth mining products down by almost 40 percent from 80,000 yuan to around 50,000 yuan a tonne, according to the Ganzhou Rare Earth Association.

Many small rare earth companies suffered big losses and had to stop production. All of Ganzhou's 88 rare earth mining plants and 90 percent of its rare earth processing factories had suspended operations, the association said.

"Our sales revenue was 410 million yuan last year, down 90 million yuan from our target," said Wei Jianzhong, director of Hongjin Rare Earth. "Our revenue would exceed 500 million yuan if there were no economic slowdown.

"The economic situation poses a severe challenge to the development of a single rare earth company with poor risk control capabilities, while cooperation with a big company with management experience will be conducive to our company's long-term development," he said.