BEIJING, Aug 2 (Reuter) - China plans to develop a mine in Tibet to exploit reserves of 7.14 million tonnes of copper, the Xinhua news agency said.

Tibet authorities would invest 1.2 billion yuan ($l44 million) to develop the first stage of the mine, intended to allow extraction of 500,000 tonnes of copper, the news agency said in an overnight report.

It quoted experts as saying development of the copper reserves, located at an altitude of around 5,000 metres in eastern Tibet's Changdu prefecture, would help alleviate China's copper shortage.

The mine would also become a pillar of the Tibetan economy, it said but gave no further details.