said April28 that its net profit attributable to shareholders declined 17.49% year over yearto 20.7 million Chinese yuan, or 1.91 fen per share, in the first quarter.

Operatingincome for the quarter increased 3.17% to 1.48 billion yuan from 1.44 billion yuana year ago. Operating costs were up 4.35% to 1.20 billion yuan from 1.15 billionyuan.

Operatingprofit declined 35.62% year over year to 39.9 million yuan, on the back of a fallin prices of tungsten and rare earths products, the company said.

Financecosts surged by 135.04% year over year to 65.7 million yuan, due to higher interestexpenses resulting from increased short-term notes.

As of April 27, US$1 was equivalentto 6.50 Chinese yuan.