Wisco became the world’s 7th largest steelmaker last year but its heavy reliance on imported iron ore seemed constant. To reverse this disadvantage, the mill acquired the prospecting and development rights of an iron ore resource in Africa earlier this year, followed by a $240 million investment of becoming the largest shareholder of Canada’s CLM and of getting involved in Bloom Lake mine of CLM, an agreement concluded with Australia’s WPG on jointly developing a deposit in Southern Australia, non-binding offers for 9.9 percent of shares in MMX and 23 percent of shares in a MMX’s subsidiary worth $400 million in total and an intention to build a five million t/y of steel plant there, as well as the recent move in which Wisco signed strategic agreements with Brazil’s EBX for further cooperation in the fields of resources development, steel projects and raw material supplies.