(Bloomberg) — Chen Jinghe was not long out of university when a government official handed him the assignment that would change his life. Go to Zijin mountain, he was told, and find gold.
It was 1982, and the geology graduate found himself on forested slopes in the remote, humid highlands of southeastern China. The bet paid off. The deposit his team eventually discovered became the nation’s biggest gold mine — and the foundation for a $67 billion state-owned behemoth that is today driving copper supply growth and gaining ground on some of the most established names in the global resources industry.
After a three-decade exploration and acquisition blitz, Zijin Mining Group Co. digs up gold, copper and lithium across multiple continents. A state-run company on paper, it has more frequently behaved like a private firm, with relatively few employees and a flexible, risk-tolerant approach to investments that has put it on track to join BHP Group Ltd. this decade among the very top ranks of copper producers.
For the rest of this article: https://www.bnnbloomberg.ca/business/international/2024/10/02/chinas-fast-growing-copper-champion-is-reshaping-global-metal-supply/#:~:text=Output%20from%20Zijin’s%20mines%20is,production%20attributable%20to%20other%20shareholders.