A South Korean corporation has resumed operations to develop mineral resources in North Korea.

The Korea Resources Corporation says it is making preparations for production in a graphite mine in South Hwanghae Province, the site of South Korea’s first project to develop mineral resources in the communist state.

An official at the state-run corporation said first shipments will arrive in the South after trial operations are concluded this week.

The mine is expected to produce around three-thousand tons of graphite annually, with around 18-hundred tons to be imported by the South.

The two Koreas signed an accord in 2003 to invest around ten-million dollars in the development of the mine, but production was halted after the North’s nuclear test in October.