Chinese gold miners plan to go abroad to buy the assets – newspaper

Almaty. April 12. Silkroadnews – The Chinese gold miners plan to go abroad to buy the assets, the newspaper “Vedomosti” writes.

“China has five to six gold companies. I have been in touch with all of them, and they all have plans for increasing assets overseas”, the newspaper quoted the general director of Sprott Asset Management Peter Grosskopf saying.
According to him, the Chinese companies are well-capitalized and better positioned than their North American counterparts. With that, the majority of the Chinese companies are looking for the operating gold mines and companies.

As noted in the publication, China consumes about 1,000 tons of gold annually and accounts for nearly 30% of global demand. The country produces around 450 tons of gold annually. According to Argonaut Securities, in 2015 the volume of its production declined by 0.4% for the first time against the background of the consumption that rose by 3.7%.

Growing demand is prompting the companies like Zijin Mining to go prospecting for overseas acquisitions, the newspaper said. According to executive director of the Zijin Mining George Q.Fang, the company hopes to achieve certain success in this regard within the next two years.

Zhaojin Mining Industry, another major gold mining company, is also looking for opportunities to buy the assets abroad. According to its investment director Chen He, the company used to consider this idea before, but that time the gold price was too high. Now the company has nearly completed all the formalities to make the deal in South America, he said and added, Zhaojin is interested in buying stock in Australia, Canada and other developed countries, and projects in developing markets, such as South America.

Despite more than 16% growth in price compared with a six-year low reached in December 2015, the gold prices still stand at the level of $1220-1250 per ounce which was observed back in 2010.