Mining’s old guard needs strong medicine
A new report details subpar investor returns in the mining industry over the last decade, particularly big cap diversified companies which have not adapted to new realities.
China Gold International Resources (TSX: CGG; HKEx: 2099) announced that the Phase II processing plant at its Jiama mine in Tibet, China, has resumed operations after being halted for over a year.
The copper-gold mine was suspended on March 27, 2023, due to a tailings overflow at the Guolanggou dam, which the company has since repaired and reinforced.
With approvals granted by Tibet government as well as relevant departments of the Chinese government, the Phase II processing plant is now operating with a daily processing capacity of 34,000 tonnes.
The Phase I plant, which has been running at a rate of 6,000 tonnes during the production ramp-up phase, will cease operations. The plant was allowed to resume in December following approval from the municipal government.
“We are proceeding cautiously in resuming operations and ramping up productions. The root causes of the overflow have been thoroughly reviewed and the lessons learned will be applied in future operations,” stated Junhu Tong, China Gold’s chairman and CEO.
Meanwhile, the company is actively advancing the construction of the Phase III tailings dam, which it expects to complete and put into operation during the first half of 2026.
As detailed in its year-end 2023 release, the Chinese miner has set a production guidance of 95-98 million lb. of copper and 42,439-45,333 oz. of gold for the Jiama mine this year once it returns to production.
This is in addition to the 106,097-112,528 oz. of gold forecasted at its CSH mine in Inner Mongolia.
