Zijin to move focus from gold to copper
September 4, 2014 Category Automotive Metals & Minerals, Metals
Zijin Mining, China’s largest gold processor, will counter falling gold and base metal prices by boosting output, improving downstream operations’ efficiency and seeking acquisitions. President Wang Jianhua said he was not optimistic that non-ferrous metal prices would see any significant rise in the second half of the year, given relatively weak global demand. The company’s Zijinshan mine, which accounted for 32% of output from its own mines, saw output fall 4.2% year-on-year in the first half. “In the next few years, Zijinshan will undergo a transitory period towards copper mining, but the profitability of copper does not necessarily have to be less than that of gold,” Wang said. Zijin posted a 1% year-on-year rise in first-half net profit to CNY1.1 billion. Excluding investment income, assets impairments, and gains and losses on the value of its assets, underlying pre-tax profit dropped 22.9% year-on-year to CNY1.79 billion. Gold contributed 38.4% to Zijin’s operating profit in the first half, down from 55.8% in the same period last year, while copper contributed 39.4%, up from 32.9%. The contributions of iron ore, zinc and other metals also rose. Gold processing turned in a profit of CNY13.5 million, compared with a loss of CNY261 million in the first half of last year, while the loss on copper refining narrowed to CNY78.8 million from CNY278 million. Zijin has not changed its 34 ton full-year gold output target for its own mines, set early this year, or the 140,000 ton target for copper output, the South China Morning Post reports.
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