DUSHANBE, September 21, Asia-Plus — Zijin Mining Group Co., Ltd, a Chinese leading gold and base metal producer, which last July bought a 75 percent ownership interest of British company in the Tajik-British joint venture Zeravshan (Zeravshan Gold Company or ZGC), intends to increase the volume of production of gold by the venture, Asia-Plus has learned Ilhom Yunusov, manager of the ZGC office in Dushanbe.    

According to him, over two months of work on the Taror deposit, some 180 kilograms of gold have been produced, “while under the previous owners the company was producing not more than 60 kilograms of gold per month.”  

Yunusov added that the Chinese company intends to invest totaling some 100 million US dollars in ZGC.  “Some $5 million of this amount have already been used,” he said.   

Zijin Mining Group Co., Ltd is listed on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange under the stock code of 2899. In 2005, its gold production ranked 20 ^th among global gold producers with a yield of 20.96 tons (according to website www.goldsheetlinks.com/ptable.htm ). Since December 20  2005, Zijin Mining has been included in the FTSE mine index. On March 20 ^th 2006, Zijin entered into the Dow Jones Offshore 50 Index. 

The group is principally engaged in the exploration of gold, copper and the other non-ferrous metals. Zijinshan Gold Mine, the core enterprise of Zijin Group, has been developed into a single metal mine with largest usable gold reserves.  The Gold Refinery of the Group is one of the first qualified gold refineries recognized by the Shanghai Gold Exchange, and is included in the Gold Delivery List of the London Bullion Metal Association (LBMA), demonstrating its capability of producing standard gold bullions and bars. The gold is entitled to use the logo of “the product implementing international standard”. 

UK’s Avocet Mining PLC (Avocet) owned 75 percent of the shares and the Tajik government assumes the 25% ownership interest in ZGC.  The main product of ZGC is gold-silver Dore alloy, which is refining at affinage plant in Tajikistan with producing of chemically pure gold and silver (99.99 and 99.95 alloys respectively).  

ZGC was launched as a joint venture with Nelson Resources Ltd (44%) and the Tajikistan government (51%) and the IFC (5%) in 1994.  In September 2002, Avocet signed a heads of agreement to acquire the Tajik gold assets of Toronto-based Nelson Resources Ltd held through Nelson''s subsidiary, Commonwealth and British Minerals Ltd.  The assets included a 44% interest in Zeravshan Gold.  In November 2004, Avocet increased its equity interest in ZGC from 49% to 75%.