On June 7, 2020, Zijin Mining issued an announcement to acquire a 50.1% stake in Tibet Julong Copper for approximately RMB 3.883 billion. At the signing ceremony held in Lhasa on June 6, Zijin Mining signed an equity acquisition agreement with relevant equity parties. After the completion of this transaction, Zijin Mining will lead the development of the porphyry copper mine with the largest proven copper metal resource reserves in China.

Baima Wangdui, member of the Standing Committee of the Tibet Autonomous Region Party Committee and Secretary of the Lhasa Municipal Party Committee, attended the signing ceremony and pointed out that the equity transfer cooperation is a model for the strong alliance of green industry development in Lhasa and will further promote the development of Julong Copper Industry to a new level. Julong Copper must conscientiously implement the concept of green development, make overall plans for mineral development and ecological protection, and strive to build green mines, safe mines, harmonious mines, Fumin mines and smart mines. The signing ceremony was presided over by Deputy Secretary of the Lhasa Municipal Committee and Mayor Guo Guo. At the signing ceremony, the local state-owned enterprises in Tibet also signed relevant agreements to increase their shareholdings with the equity transferor.

Signing ceremony site

Chairman Chen Jinghe pointed out at the signing ceremony that Zijin Mining has a deep mining complex with Tibet and has participated in the development of the Tibet Yulong Copper Mine and the Xietongmenxiongcun Copper Mine. Although under the current market and economic and technological conditions, Julong Copper is a major challenging project, Zijin Mining has the experience of successfully operating mines on the plateau, and in terms of large-scale development of low-grade refractory mineral resources and ecological environmental protection, Its technology and management innovation capabilities have strong comparative competitive advantages. In particular, with the help of the new era to promote the development of the western region and form a new pattern of Dongfeng, Zijin Mining will make full use of the major platform of settled in Julong Copper, work with all partners to do its utmost, bear the utmost trust, and strive to achieve high standards in 2021. By the end of the year, the construction of the first phase of the Qulong Copper Mine was basically completed, and the second phase of the project was launched in due course. Zijin Mining will accelerate a new dragon to take off again and build China's largest world-class ultra-large copper mine.

According to Zijin Mining’s resource verification, based on the minimum industrial grade of 0.4% equivalent copper (molybdenum is converted to copper), the project as a whole has an average grade of 0.41% of copper metal of 10.4 million tons and associated 0.028% of molybdenum metal of about 730,000 Ton. At the same time, there are a large number of low-grade copper mine resources in the mining area. If the technological and economic breakthrough of low-grade resources can be achieved, the copper prospect resource reserves in the Julong Copper Mining Area may exceed 20 million tons.

Qi Zara, deputy secretary and chairman of the Party Committee of the Tibet Autonomous Region, met with Chairman Chen Jinghe

According to the mine plan, the Qulong copper mining area will use large-scale open-pit mining technology to construct in two phases. The first phase of the project has an overall investment of 14.6 billion yuan and has completed an investment of 7.4 billion yuan. It is planned to be completed and put into production by the end of 2021, and the annual output after completion It has 165,000 tons of copper and 60,200 tons of molybdenum. The second phase will start processing 300,000 tons of construction per day in the 7-8th year after the first phase is put into production. After completion, it will produce 263,000 tons of copper and 13,000 tons of molybdenum. After the project is completed and put into production, it will become China's largest single copper mine.

At present, most of the construction of the Qulong Copper Mine has been completed. Due to the shortage of funds of the original actual controller, the construction has basically stopped in the second half of 2019. In addition, the Zhibula copper polymetallic ore mining and selection project has been basically completed and trial production. The project can be officially put into operation after the construction of the shared Qulong copper polymetallic mine tailings pond is completed, which will quickly generate profits and cash flow.

More than 75% of China’s copper mines need to be imported, and copper resources, as a national industrial strategic resource, require more major resource projects like Qulong Copper Mine to make China’s largest world-class ultra-large copper mine take off like a giant dragon. Editor/Tian Zengpeng