{"id":1180697,"date":"2020-04-27T09:32:28","date_gmt":"2020-04-27T14:32:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.mining.com\/?p=1021844"},"modified":"2020-04-27T09:32:28","modified_gmt":"2020-04-27T14:32:28","slug":"zijin-axes-expected-gold-output-after-losing-png-mine","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/juniorminingnews.com\/?p=1180697","title":{"rendered":"Zijin axes expected gold output after losing PNG mine"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Zijin Mining, China\u2019s No.1 gold producer and second largest copper miner, has <a rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" aria-label=\" (opens in a new tab)\" href=\"http:\/\/www.zijinmining.com\/upload\/file\/2020\/04\/27\/571321da86e640178e6cf3735e714fca.pdf\" >revised down its gold production guidance for 2020<\/a> after Papua New Guinea (PNG) <a href=\"https:\/\/www.mining.com\/papua-new-guinea-snatches-barrick-golds-porgera-mine\/\"  rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" aria-label=\" (opens in a new tab)\">refused to extend the mining lease for the Porgera mine<\/a> it operates with Barrick Gold (TSX: ABX) (NYSE: GOLD).&nbsp;<\/p>\n<div class='d-flex justify-content-center d-xs-block d-sm-block d-md-none'>\n<div id='div-gpt-ad-1561499308230-0'><script>googletag.cmd.push(function() {googletag.display('div-gpt-ad-1561499308230-0');});<\/script><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p>Zijin had forecast gold production<br \/>\nfor the year of 44 tonnes, rising to 42-47 tonnes in 2021 and 49-54 tonnes in<br \/>\n2022. <\/p>\n<p>Following PNG\u2019s decision, the miner<br \/>\nnow expects to maintain gold production levels in 2020 \u201cabout the same as\u201d last<br \/>\nyear\u2019s, when it churned out 40.8 tonnes of gold.<\/p>\n<p>The gold producer said it planned<br \/>\nto speed up the upgrade and construction of its Longnan Zijin project in China<br \/>\nand boost production at other mines in its portfolio in order to offset the<br \/>\nloss of Porgera.<\/p>\n<p>Zijin\u2019s share of the mine\u2019s gold<br \/>\nproduction in 2019 was 8.827 tonnes.<\/p>\n<p>The company also said its joint venture with Barrick would \u201cpursue all legal avenues\u201d to fight PNG\u2019s move and \u201cto protect its legitimate interests and recover any damages.\u201d<\/p>\n<h2><strong>Looking into acquisitions<\/strong><\/h2>\n<p>Since the mining lease for Porgera<br \/>\nexpired in August last year, Barrick led attempts to renew it, but faced&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.mining.com\/barrick-meets-new-png-leader-porgera-mine-lease-extension\/\"  rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">backlash from landowners and residents<\/a>&nbsp;over what they<br \/>\nclaimed were negative social, environmental and economic impacts from the mine.<\/p>\n<p>Negotiations were complicated<br \/>\nfurther by a split among the landowners.<\/p>\n<p>The manager of Porgera, Barrick Niugini Limited, applied for a permit extension in June 2017 that would have renewed its rights for 20 years and had been engaging with the government on the matter since then, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.mining.com\/papua-new-guinea-snatches-barrick-golds-porgera-mine\/\"  rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" aria-label=\" (opens in a new tab)\">Barrick&nbsp;said on Friday<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>In response to a request from PNG\u2019s<br \/>\nPrime Minister James Marape, the world\u2019s second largest gold miner proposed in<br \/>\n2019 a benefit-sharing arrangement. The deal would have delivered more than<br \/>\nhalf the economic benefits to PNG stakeholders, including the government, for<br \/>\n20 years, according to Barrick.<\/p>\n<p>Zijin, which has a portfolio of<br \/>\nproducing and developing assets in its home country, Australia, Russia, Mongolia,<br \/>\nSerbia and Kyrgyzstan among other countries, said it would pay attention to<br \/>\nmarket opportunities and consider mine acquisitions to boost output.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>It plans to speed up the upgrade and construction of its Longnan Zijin project in China and look into acquisitions to offset the loss of Porgera.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"footnotes":""},"categories":[369,4,2640],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/juniorminingnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1180697"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/juniorminingnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/juniorminingnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/juniorminingnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/8"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/juniorminingnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1180697"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/juniorminingnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1180697\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1180729,"href":"https:\/\/juniorminingnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1180697\/revisions\/1180729"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/juniorminingnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1180697"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/juniorminingnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1180697"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/juniorminingnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1180697"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}