The smelting plant belongs to Dongling Group, one of the biggest private companies in Shaanxi Province. The plant in Changqing town began operating in 2006, producing 100,000 tonnes of lead and zinc and 700,000 tonnes of coke annually. It directly accounted for 17 percent of the county's GDP last year.

More than 600 children living adjacent to a smelting company in northwest China's Shaanxi Province have shown abnormal blood lead levels, a local official said Thursday. [Xinhua]

Its general manager Sun Hong said the county government had pledged, in a deal reached before the plant was opened, to relocate all residents living within a radius of 500 meters in three years.

"But the relocation is way behind schedule," said Pu Yiming, chief of Changqing Township. "Of all the 581 families that should have been relocated by now, only 156 have moved to new homes."

At Thursday's press conference, the county government promised intervention to speed up relocation.

"We will ensure that all the remaining 425 families are relocated within two years," said He Hongnian.

Local authorities ordered the closure of the smelting plant on Aug. 6, about two weeks after the first lead poisoning case was reported in 6-year-old Miao Fan.

(Xinhua News Agency August 14, 2009)