By HUANG Shan

Previously almost unheard of, Zhejiang MINGR?Jewelry is sparkling in the stock-exchange limelight since an announcement that the company plans to invest 10 billion yuan (US$1.5 billion) in a photovoltaic cell plant.?

Ming released has reached an agreement with Shaoxing, a prefecture-level city on the southern shore of Hangzhou Bay in northeastern Zhejiang province, to build a photovoltaic factory?on a 25-hectare site. The project will take years and be divided into two phases. MINGR Jewelry?shares?went limit up Monday and opened 5 percent up on Tuesday. ?

MINGR?Jewelry was founded in Shaoxing in 1987 by YU A’wu and his son Yu Tuliang. In 1994, it released?the first platinum accessory in China. The company went public in 2011, raising 1.9 billion yuan.

MINGR?Jewelry desperately needs to find some new source of profit. Revenue last year was no more than 350 million yuan, with a net loss of 140 million yuan.?

The jewelry market was weak last year. In the first six months, turnover was 148 billion yuan, down 1.3 percent year on year, but?MINGR?Jewelry’s turnover slid by close to ten percent.