Hami Prefecture

Hami Prefecture (simplified Chinese: 哈密地区; pinyin: Hāmì Dìqū; _ug. قۇمۇل ۋىلايىتى|Qumul Wilayiti|K̡umul Vilayiti) is located in eastern Xinjiang, China. It has an area of 140,749 km² and 492,096 inhabitants (2000).

Demographics

Of its inhabitants, 68.95% are Han, 18.42% are Uyghur, 8.76% are Kazakh, 2.97% are Hui, with the remainder belonging to other nationalities.

Administrative divisions

Hami Prefecture is divided into 1 county-level city: Kumul (哈密市), 1 county: Aratürük county (Yiwu 伊吾县), and 1 autonomous county: Barkol Kazakh Autonomous County (巴里坤哈萨克自治县). The seat of the local government is in Kumul city

Mineral resources

A newly discovered nickel mine in Hami is estimated to contain reserves of over 15.8 million tons of the metal, it therefore ranks as China's second largest nickel mine. Around 900,000 tons of nickel has already been detected.

Some local copper and nickel mining enterprises are reported to have begun operation, with Xinjiang Nonferrous Metals Group mining company running its nickel smelter crude production furnace at Hami Industrial Park.

The Hami area is known for its large amount of high quality raw resources with 76 kinds of metals already detected. The major mineral resources of this area include coal, iron, copper, nickel, gold.