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Zijin Mining invests abroad as gold shines

(Agencies)
Updated: 2008-07-31 16:44

Zijin Mining, China's top listed gold producer, plans to invest 1 billion yuan ($146 million) in a gold mining project in Tajikistan and awaits approval for another in the Philippines, as it expands abroad to ride sky-high prices.

Zijin is also seeking new projects to mine silver and zinc in Tajikistan and is in talks to buy a gold mine in Africa. But the company said it is becoming more selective after adding 11 exploration licences and seven mining licences in the past year, amid concerns metal prices may start turning around soon.

The price of gold , which accounted for 64 percent of Zijin's total sales in the first six months of this year, has risen by nearly $100 per troy ounce, or 12 percent from the beginning of the year, to $930.25 a troy ounce on Tuesday.

Zijin reported a 45 percent rise in first-half profits, to 1.74 billion yuan ($255 million).

"We will consider projects only if they can create more value from the current values as prices are already high. We will not buy regardless of prices," chairman Chen Jinghe said.

"For now, it is hard to predict the outcome of the African project as we are quite apart on the price."

But Zijin is keen on projects in Tajikistan. It plans to inject more funds to upgrade the technology and boost output at its existing gold project in the country, which includes two mines.

"We paid $50 million to buy 75 percent of the Tajikistan company. We are going to put another 1 billion yuan to boost production," Chen said. The remaining 25 percent stake was owned by the Tajikistan government.

He said the Tajikistan company controlled the two gold mines and Zijin's investment would boost gold production to up to five tons a year in the next three to five years, from one ton now.

Zijin planned to send a delegate to the central Asian nation to select new investment projects, which likely would be zinc and silver.

Philippine project

Zijin is confident of obtaining approval from China and the Philippines for a gold-copper mining project in the Philippines before the end of this year, Chen said.

The initial plan of the project is to mine more than 1 million tons of copper and 100 tons of gold, half of the site's total reserve, he said without providing details.

Last year, Philippine mining group Lepanto sold a 20 percent stake in the gold-copper project in Benguet, in the north of the country, to Zijin.

Zijin is also expanding in South America.

Chen said the building of the Rio Blanco copper-molybdenum project in Peru would start in 2010 with annual production of 150,000-200,000 tons of copper.

Zijin produced 26.71 tons of gold in the first six months, up 19.9 percent on the year.

Copper output rose 12.3 percent to 23,995 tons in the first half, while zinc output fell 12.2 percent to 69,182 tons due to low prices.

Currently Zijin holds reserves of 663.25 tons of gold, up 4 percent from the first quarter.