China's Top Gold Producer Lowers 2020 Output Guidance

SEATTLE (Scrap Monster): Zijin Mining- the leading gold producer in China with assets elsewhere in Australia, Russia, Mongolia, Serbia and Kyrgyzstan has lowered its gold production guidance for the current year.

Earlier, the company had guided for 44 tonnes of gold production in 2020, 42-47 tonnes in 2021 and 49-54 tonnes in 2022. However, it has now revised downwards its guidance for the current year to total around the same level as in the previous year. It must be noted that the annual gold production by the company had totalled 40.8 tonnes.

The downward revision follows recent denial of the special mining license by the Papua New Guinea (PNG) government for the Porgera mine-its joint venture project with Barrick Gold. The mine had produced 8.827 tonnes of gold in 2019. Meantime, the company announced that it will pursue all legal options to fight the government decision to take control of the mine and recover any damages thereof.

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Zijin Mining announced that it will focus on boosting gold production from its other mines, in order to offset the loss in output from the PNG mine. Also, the upgrade and construction of the Longnan Zijin in China and potential acquisition of operating assets would be given top priority. The company expressed confidence in maintaining satisfactory growth in gold production in future.