ASTANA. October 9. KAZINFORM The Export-Import Bank of China, known as China Eximbank, one of the nation's major policy lenders, was reportedly in talks to fund Kazakh metals producer Eurasian Natural Resources Corp (ENRC) on an $876-million project to enhance its production capacity, Kazinform cites China Daily. ENRC planned to draw on the fund to expand a chrome smelter and upgrade an aluminum plant, Bloomberg reported. It had asked Samruk-Kazyna, the Kazakh sovereign wealth fund, to help it find investment. Aidan Karibzhanov, managing director of Samruk-Kazyna, said the fund managers were in discussions with China Eximbank on behalf of ENRC. The sovereign wealth fund manages the 12-percent stake that Kazakhstan held in the metals producers. Both China Eximbank and ENRC could not be reached immediately for comment but the move showed that ENRC was keen to join other commodity producers, such as Russian aluminum maker United Co and Australian iron ore producer Fortescue Metals Group, to tap investors in the world's biggest metal consumer. China inked a $10-billion loan-for-oil deal with Kazakhstan in April. As part of the effort to expand the two countries' cooperation in energy and other sectors, China Eximbank granted a $5-billion credit line to the Development Bank of Kazakhstan in July, Kazinform refers to China Daily. See www.chinadaily.com for full version.