BEIJING, Jan 29 (Reuters) – The former head of China’s Anshan Iron and Steel Group (Ansteel) has been named the new chairman of metals group China Minmetals Corp , the State-Owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission (SASAC) said on Monday. Tang Fuping replaces He Wenbo, who leaves Minmetals having served as chairman since May 2015, a Minmetals spokesman said. It was not immediately clear where He would go next. The appointment was announced at a meeting of senior Mimmetals‘ management on Monday morning, SASAC said on its official Weibo account, a Twitter-like microblogging platform. A spokesman for Ansteel confirmed that Tang has left the company, and said it was not clear who would replace him. Tang turns 60 in March. He joined Ansteel after graduating in 1982 from the Anshan Iron and Steel Institute, in China’s northeastern Liaoning province, according to a 2016 report from the official Xinhua news agency announcing his appointment as Ansteel chairman. State-owned Minmetals, one of China’s biggest metals firms, mostly produces copper, zinc and nickel, but also holds reserves of steelmaking raw material iron ore. In November, Minmetals signed a deal to set up an iron ore blending facility in Hebei province with four companies, including two steelmakers.