Zijin News April 28th, Zijin Mining released its first quarter of 2020 performance announcement. During the reporting period, the Company conscientiously carried out the main work focus of “deepening reform, achieving leaping growth and sustainable development”. Faced with the severe situation of global spread of novel coronavirus pneumonia and the substantial drop in copper and zinc prices, the Company insisted to work on both prevention and control of disease outbreak and production and operation together. All of the Company’s management and staff worked proactively to carry out their work with creativity. The Company realised an overall outstanding performance in terms of production and operation during the first quarter, and even outperformed the targets of certain indicators. Grasping the opportunity of rise in gold price, the Company’s gold segment exerted full strength. 10.55 tonnes of mine-produced gold were produced in the first quarter, representing an increase of 8.82% compared with the same period last year. The production volume of mine-produced copper maintained its fast growing pace. 114.9 thousand tonnes of mine-produced copper were produced in the first quarter, representing an increase of 36.55% compared with the same period last year.
The Company implemented various measures for “the year for project construction”. Key construction projects including the Upper Zone of the Timok Copper and Gold Mine in Serbia, technological upgrade and expansion of the Zijin Bor Copper Mine, the Kamao-Kakula Copper Mine were carried out in an orderly manner. Longnan Zijin obtained the mining permit of the Liba Gold Mine and it is expected to resume production in June 2020, and commence the construction of its 10,000 tonnes/day technological upgrade and expansion project.
In March 2020, the Company completed the acquisition of the Buriticá Gold Mine project in Colombia. The project has entered into the phase of trial run and pilot production, and the production line of the processing plant has basically been completed. Approximately 10kg of reprocessed gold was produced in auxiliary production during the first quarter. After completion of acquisition of the Buriticá Gold Mine, the Company’s high-grade gold resource reserve volume under equity basis increased by 243 tonnes and its gold resource reserve volume increased to 2,130 tonnes.
During the reporting period, the Company realised operating income of RMB36.162 billion, representing an increase of 24.52% compared with the same period last year (same period last year: RMB29.042 billion); net profit attributable to owners of the parent of RMB1.040 billion, representing an increase of 18.93% compared with the same period last year (same period last year: RMB874 million); net cash flows from operating activities of RMB2.326 billion, representing an increase of 81.02% compared with the same period last year (same period last year: RMB1.285 billion).
Both the sales volume and price of the Company’s gold business escalated. Gold business realised gross profit before elimination of RMB1.818 billion, representing 41.32% of the Group’s gross profit (including refining entities). Although copper and zinc prices dropped substantially, copper and zinc businesses realised relatively good returns. Copper business realised gross profit before elimination of RMB1.741 billion, representing 39.59% of the Group’s gross profit (including refining entities). Other businesses including zinc and iron realised gross profit before elimination of RMB841 million, representing 19.09% of the Group’s gross profit (including refining entities).