REFILE-Fanya metal exchange’s cobalt inventory sold for 5.91 million yuan

 (Removes dollar symbol from headline)
    BEIJING, Oct 6 (Reuters) - The cobalt inventory formerly
held by Southwest China's Fanya Metal Exchange was on Sunday
sold to Shanghai Sanqian New Energy Materials for 5.91 million
yuan ($826,839) in an online auction, according to the
e-commerce platform that hosted the sale.
    The series of Fanya inventory auctions by the Kunming
Intermediate People's Court are being closely watched by minor
metals traders, as well as creditors seeking the return of
around 40 billion yuan following the collapse of the
Yunnan-based exchange in 2015.
    The bourse was later taken over by government investigators
and its founder was jailed in March for 18 years for crimes
including embezzlement.
    In a day-long auction that ended in Beijing at 1015 (0215
GMT) on Sunday, Shanghai Sanqian New Energy Materials made the
highest bid for the cobalt, which is currently in storage in
Shanghai, according to the auction page on Taobao. 
    Even with China observing its National Day holiday from Oct.
1-7, the auction was a hotly contested affair with 143 bids,
many submitted on Sunday morning.
    The price paid works out at 281,262 yuan ($39,350.00) a
tonne, above the current London Metal Exchange cobalt price
 of $34,000 a tonne, Reuters calculation showed. London
cobalt was trading at more than $90,000 a tonne 18 months ago.
    The starting price in the auction had been set at 3.92
million yuan, while the market value was put at 4.9 million
yuan.
    Six Fanya auctions so far, covering materials as varied as
antimony and ammonium paratungstate (APT), have raised more than
4 billion yuan.
    However, one Shanghai-based former investor in the exchange,
who puts the total amount owed at around 43 billion yuan, said
creditors "will not simply accept repayment only from the result
of auctions". 
    "If there is any gap between the auction proceeds and our
original investment, we will keep pushing the government to
close the gap," the former investor said on condition of
anonymity.

The table below shows the results of Fanya auctions held so far.
       
 Commodity      Tonnes  Sold for (yuan)  Winner
 Indium         34.64   37.4 mln         China National Corp for
                                         Overseas Economic
                                         Cooperation
 Antimony       18,661  546.1 mln        China Minmetals Rare
                                         Earth Co
 Terbium oxide  4.05    12.8 mln         China Minmetals Rare
                                         Earth Co
 Dysprosium     148.75  221.5 mln        China Minmetals Rare
 oxide                                   Earth Co
 APT            28,336  3.27 bln         China Molybdenum Co
 Cobalt         21      5.91 mln         Shanghai Sanqian New
                                         Energy Materials
 
($1 = 7.1477 Chinese yuan renminbi)

    
 (Reporting by Hallie Gu, Huizhong Wu and Tom Daly; Editing by
Christopher Cushing)