Natural resources in the form of salt is one of the areas of business in which FirstLink has made a significant foray. The Company has a direct 27.82% interest in Qinghai Province Salt Industry Limited (QS) through its wholly-owned subsidiary, Amtrosden Assets Limited, making QS an associated company of FirstLink.

QS is engage in the manufacturing and distribution of salts in China and has been operating for about 50 years in the business of mining, processing and distributing edible and industrial salts in China.

The most valuable assets of QS are the two salt lakes, namely Chaka Lake (95sq km) and Keke Lake (113sq km), which are located some 3,000 metres above sea level on the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau where virtually no man-made pollution is found. The products of QS are the only salt products in China having been granted the "Greenfood" accreditation by China Greenfood Development Centre, signifying the products as pollution free and high quality. QS holds 30 years' mining rights in these two high quality salt lakes which have an estimated total salt reserve of 1.5 billion tons. The production capacity of QS is expected to be upgraded from the existing 1.9 million tons to 4 million tons per year.

Chaka Lake and Keke Lake have railway connection to the PRC national railway system. Finished goods are loaded onto trains in loading stations located within the processing plants adjacent to the salt lakes and shipped directly to the distribution centres where the goods are then delivered to customers through the extensive PRC national railway network. The availability of an abundance of land bank around the salt lakes is an attraction for companies with high industrial salt consumption. QS has arranged alkali-chloride industries to set up plants in the vicinity of the lakes with the support of the local state government.

Besides the distribution of edible and industrial salt, QS works closely with some renowned research institutions such as the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology (HKUST), the Chinese Academy of Sciences and Qinghua University on product development and manufacturing processes of salt and salt-based products from raw salt extracted from the salt lakes.

Having a strong foothold in the China market through QS, FirstLink is well-positioned to take advantage of the geographical convenience of Singapore as a trading hub to exploit the overseas market.