Mr. Chen Jinghe, Chairman of Zijin Mining, attended the opening ceremony of the International Investment Forum 2017 in Xiamen and joined the Dialogue programme of CCTV, where he shared ideas about Zijin’s international investments during the ‘golden decade’ with Mr. Zhu Xian, vice-president of the BRICS New Development Bank, and some famous economists.

Mr. Chen Jinghe said Zijin, as a large transnational mining group, possessing the largest amount of gold, copper and zinc resources in China, is the biggest gold mining company in China, and Zijin’s mined copper and zinc production may rank number one in China this year.

As a Chinese company, Zijin currently owns the largest amount of metal resources abroad, with its reserves and productions ranking top 10 worldwide. And Zijin’s overseas gold and copper reserves account for more than half of its total reserves, while its overseas production will gradually surpass its domestic production.

Mr. Chen pointed out that resource is the crux of Zijin’s overseas investment. He said most of Zijin’s overseas investments are distributed in the countries along the Belt and Road.

‘Take our Kyzyl-Tash Turk Polymetallic mine as an example. It is located in Russia’s Republic of Tuva. The reason why Zijin chose to invest in this area was not only due to the high-grade and large amount of zinc-lead-copper resources, but also the strengthening relations between China and Russia, and the improvement of Russian investment climate. Now this project has become a major profit contributor among Zijin’s overseas investments.’

‘Zijin attaches great importance to the technical standards and successful experience in overseas projects. By optimizing the construction plan of our Kolwezi copper mine, the construction period was shortened by one and a half years, and the actual investment was reduced by 40% compared with that in pre-feasibility study. It reflects the success of Chinese technology and standards. ’ Mr. Chen said, ‘in our Kamoa copper mine, through continuously improving exploration techniques in south Kakula discovery, wehave discovered a total copper resources over 40 Mt and soon it will be among top three largest copper deposit in the world.’

Zijin believes its development in Africa is a vital part. South Africa, a traditional mining country with the largest amount of resources of gold, platinum group metals, manganese, etc. in the world, is a key gateway to Africa.

Mr. Chen said Zijin owns high-grade platinum group metals in Garatau mine in South Africa. ‘Zijin will gradually explore mechanized mining method to solve the issues regarding production efficiency improvement, cost control, safety and environmental protection.’

In the end, Mr. Chen stressed Zijin would continue to accelerate the overseas investment, and make contribution to achieve the second ‘golden decade’ of BRICS cooperation.