The Zijinshan Gold-Copper Mine is both the birthplace and a core asset of Zijin Mining. In the 1980s, Mr. Chen Jinghe, founder of Zijin Mining, discovered and measured a gold deposit overlying a large copper deposit at Zijinshan, earning China’s National Science and Technology Progress Award (First Prize). In 1993, Zijinshan embarked on a journey of low-cost, high-profit, and sustainable development. It is also a hub that nurtures Zijin Mining’s management expertise, technical capabilities, and talent across various disciplines. Through management and technological innovations, Zijinshan has not only achieved maximum recovery of gold and copper from low-grade resources but also maximized the economic and social benefits it generates. In this process, it pioneered the Five-Pronged Mining Engineering Model, an integrated approach to the technologies and processes of geological exploration, mining, processing, metallurgy, and environmental protection.
In 2025, Zijin Mining obtained official registration of a resource estimate from the Fujian Provincial Natural Resources Review Center for the newly delineated northeastern section of the Zijinshan Mine. This is the largest porphyry copper-molybdenum deposit discovered in Fujian in the past 20 years, with 340 Mt of resources, containing 1.33 Mt of copper and 90,000 tonnes of molybdenum.
Zijinshan is a national pilot site for safety risk management and hazard elimination (“dual prevention mechanism”) and has been recognized as a “National Demonstration Company for Safety Culture.” It hosts the National Mine Emergency Rescue Team of Fujian Province. Guided by the principle that “green is gold”, the mine has made early, significant investments in ecological restoration, successfully transforming into a park-like green mine.
Its wastewater reuse system is integrated with a bioleaching process, achieving both environmental and economic benefits. The mine actively advances the use of solar, hydro, wind, and ammonia-based hydrogen power, complemented by energy storage systems, aiming to become a model project in de-carbonization.
Zijinshan has been recognized as China’s largest gold mine, a national industrial tourism demonstration site, a National Mine Park, a national soil and water conservation demonstration project, a national model for comprehensive mineral resource recovery, a National Green Mine, and a National Green Plant. It also constitutes an important part of the Longyan UNESCO Global Geopark.