DUSHANBE, July 5, 2008, Asia-Plus — On Friday July 4, President Emomali Rahmon met with Mr. Chen Jinghe, President of Zijin Mining Group Co., Ltd, a Chinese leading gold and base metal producer, which had purchased the 75% ownership interest of the UK-listed Avocet Mining in Zeravshan Gold Company (ZGC).
State and prospects of production of gold and other precious metals in the Zarafshon Valley were a focus of their talks.
Speaking to reporters after a meeting with President Rahmon, Mr. Chen said that he had informed the Tajik head of state about work carried out by the corporation having replaced ZGC in northern Tajikistan over the past year
Over the report period, the corporation has not only repaid debts but has also carried out a considerable work on modernization of means of production and technologies, he said. “As a result of the work done, the enterprise has come out of the crisis situation and got a profit of $660,000 over the first six months of this year,” the corporation head said.
On the prospects of corporation’s operations, Chen said that they plan to increase production of gold in northern Tajikistan by 70 percent in the second half-year of 2008.
According to him, they have spent more than $18 million for modernization of technologies and equipment and purchased 15 heavy quarry machines.
He noted that Zijin Mining Group Co., Ltd intends to invest more $100 million in mining of gold, silver and copper in Tajikistan. Besides, they plan to construct an affinage plant.
“I assured the president that next year, gold production will be brought to 2 tons and by 2010, an gold production at our joint venture will have been brought to 3 tons per year,” said Chen, “Besides, we will increase silver and copper production as well.”
Asked about measure to provide social protection of the personnel, the corporation head said that monthly wage had increased and it now exceeds an average monthly wage in Tajikistan two-three times. Besides, 1,600 people currently working with the enterprise are provided with daily hot meal and receive 50 kilograms of wheat flour per month each.
We will recall that in July 2007, ZGC had a significant change of ownership. Avocet Mining, the UK-listed owner of 75% of ZGC (the Tajik government holds the remaining 25%) sold out its interest to Zijin Mining Group Co., Ltd.
The main product of ZGC is gold-silver Dore alloy, which is refining at affinage plant in Tajikistan with producing of chemically pure gold and silver (99.99 and 99.95 alloys respectively).
Zijin Mining Group Co., Ltd is listed on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange under the stock code of 2899. In 2005, its gold production ranked 20th among global gold producers with a yield of 20.96 tons (according to website
www.goldsheetlinks.com/ptable.htm
). Since December 20 2005, Zijin Mining has been included in the FTSE mine index. On March 20 2006, Zijin entered into the Dow Jones Offshore 50 Index.
The group is principally engaged in the exploration of gold, copper and the other non-ferrous metals. Zijinshan Gold Mine, the core enterprise of Zijin Group, has been developed into a single metal mine with largest usable gold reserves. The Gold Refinery of the Group is one of the first qualified gold refineries recognized by the Shanghai Gold Exchange, and is included in the Gold Delivery List of the London Bullion Metal Association (LBMA), demonstrating its capability of producing standard gold bullions and bars. The gold is entitled to use the logo of “the product implementing international standard”.
