In 2008 it paid more than £10m in taxes to the local government,[1] 17% of the administration's total income, and provided jobs for 2,000 households.
[2] Local parents however noticed that children were showing signs of illness - such as nose bleeds and memory problems.
[2] 851 children from seven villages surrounding the plant displayed up to 10 times the level of lead in their blood deemed safe by Chinese authorities.
The plant has now been closed down, but according to Western reports all coverage in the Chinese media of events has now been banned.
[1] The Times reported in September 2009 that "similar protests broke out in three other provinces, where horrified parents living near smelters of lead, copper and aluminium also learnt that their children had been poisoned—1,300 of them in one city alone".