Liu yongxing, the eighth richest person on the Chinese mainland in the 2002 Forbes ranking, will invest more than 10 billion yuan (US$1.2 billion) to tap into the country's aluminum market.

Liu's shanghai-based East Hope Group, one of the country's largest privately-owned companies, has already injected more than 2 billion yuan into his electrolyte aluminum complex in Baotou, Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region, the Chinese-language newspaper China Business Times said.

The 10-billion-yuan Baotou project is expected to finish its four-phase construction by 2008, the largest project of its kind in the world.

It will have an annual production capacity of 250,000 tons of electrolyte aluminum when its first phase is finished by the end of this year.

Since earning millions from producing animal feed, Liu has been searching for business opportunities in other industries to develop his next cash cow.

The aluminum business is now the company's second-largest core business, company officials said.

"Our investment in Baotou is not only for the sake of our aluminum project. It has a complete industry chain within itself," the newspaper quoted Liu as saying.

It will take advantage of Baotou's rich coal resources to generate electricity, a huge amount of which is needed to produce electrolyte aluminum, the paper said.

Liu has also tapped into other areas of the aluminum industry.

In july, East Hope entered the business of alumina-making, which was then currently monopolized by the Aluminum Corporation of China, better known as Chalco, the country's only alumina producer.

East hope teamed up with three companies, including one American, to get the venture going.

The four parties invested 4.59 billion yuan into the venture with East Hope holding a 51 percent controlling stake.

The project is expected to produce 1.05 million tons of alumina each year within three years' time.

"East Hope's new joint venture will challenge Chalco's monopoly in the long run," said Sun Zhaohui, an Industrial Securities Co analyst.

This year, the country is expected to see a demand for 10 million tons of alumina of which Chalco can only satisfy 60 percent.

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