Panzhihua Iron & Steel Group, or Pangang, in southwest China's Sichuan province produced 12.07 million mt of iron ore concentrate from its mines in the Panzhihua area of Sichuan last year, which was up 14.3% on 2012 and a record high for the company, it said Tuesday.

The higher iron ore concentrate output was achieved mainly via the improvement of efficiency in processing and concentrating processes, a Pangang official explained on January 7.

After the Anshan-Benxi iron ore deposits in northeast China's Liaoning province, Pangang owns the country's second-largest iron ore deposit, accounting for 20% of China's iron ore resources.

Pangang is also China's largest vanadium and titanium producer, controlling 52% of the country's vanadium and 95% of its titanium resources, as its iron ore magnetite resources are vanadium and titanium contained.

Pangang became part of Anshan Iron & Steel Group in 2011, and has been operating both the companies' iron ore mines in Sichuan, Liaoning and Australia since then.

Pangang aims to become China's largest iron ore producer by expanding its concentrate capacity to 48.1 million mt/y from 25.1 million mt/year in 2012 both inside China and in Australia, a company official said earlier.