Zijin Mining | The Gold Empire Starting from Waste Mines

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Author / Avocado Under the Starry Sky

Editor / Spinach Under the Starry Sky

Typesetting / Plum Blossom Under the Starry Sky

If some concepts in the stock market become very popular, it is largely influenced by market sentiment. However, behind the hotness of #Zijin Mining (601899), there is real money backing it. According to data from Eastmoney, since the big surge in gold prices in December 2025, Zijin’s stock price has also soared.

Source: Eastmoney Official Website - Zijin Mining (as of March 6, 2026)

Talking about Zijin’s journey, it’s still a story of “counterattack” and success.

Zijin’s original base was Zijin Mountain in Fujian. It was once judged by professionals as a “low-value mining area.” However, founder Chen Jinghe had a keen eye, and after taking over, he started from this unremarkable mountain peak, nurturing a global mining giant with a market value exceeding one trillion yuan, truly turning stone into gold.

Of course, today’s Zijin, in terms of resource reserves and income, is far ahead.

1. Dual-wheel drive, solid resource reserves

As a mining company, one of its core strengths is resource reserves. Only with scarce resources can it have a say, and this is precisely Zijin’s advantage. Zijin has always adhered to the core strategy of “resource priority,” driven by “counter-cyclical mergers + autonomous exploration and discovery,” building a world-class resource reserve system covering copper, gold, lithium, silver, and other varieties. Its resources are spread across the globe, forming the foundation for long-term mining and development.

Financial data shows that since 2018, the company’s intangible assets have grown rapidly. The largest component of intangible assets is the mining rights owned by the company. As of mid-2025, the total intangible assets amounted to about 97.8 billion yuan, close to 100 billion yuan.

Additionally, “intangible assets” mainly refer to the extractable parts that have mining value but have not yet been mined. For mined ore, processed concentrates, and finished products awaiting sale, these are considered the company’s “inventory.” Considering inventory, the company also has 33.2 billion yuan (as of the end of Q3 2025) in reserves.

Source: Tonghuashun iFinD - Intangible Assets

Although the company has a multi-variety layout, it mainly focuses on copper and gold. Market data shows that as of the end of 2024, Zijin’s copper and gold resources are among the top or leading globally, ranking fifth or sixth worldwide, with strong resource reserve competitiveness.

2. Multiple pillars, strong resilience

The company’s income mainly comes from the mining and sales of mineral resources. Corresponding to resource reserves, copper and gold are Zijin’s core income sources, while emerging and auxiliary minerals like lithium and zinc serve as supplements, forming a “dual core + multiple supports” business growth pattern. According to the mid-2025 financial report, excluding “other businesses such as trading and refining” that do not specify metal types, about 26% of revenue comes from copper-related businesses, and about 21% from gold-related businesses, with other metals contributing less.

Source: Tonghuashun iFinD - Revenue

Under this multi-pillar business layout, the company’s revenue also shows strong resilience.

Historical data shows that Zijin Mining has achieved over 20 years of continuous revenue growth, demonstrating resilience beyond traditional resource stocks’ cyclical patterns. In 2015, the company’s revenue was only 74.304 billion yuan; by 2024, it had risen to 303.639 billion yuan, more than tripling over ten years, with an outstanding compound annual growth rate. From 2021 to 2024, year-over-year growth rates were 31.25%, 20.09%, 8.53%, and 3.48%, respectively. Even during the industry downturn in 2023-2024, it maintained positive growth.

In the first three quarters of 2025, revenue increased by 10.33% year-over-year, setting a new record. One reason is the increase in gold prices boosting income. In the first half of 2025, gold production-related revenue grew by 62% year-over-year, becoming a strong driver of revenue growth.

Of course, this resilience is not solely dependent on price fluctuations. Two other key factors are resource reserves and steady capacity release. Without strong resource reserves and timely capacity expansion, price fluctuations alone can only be a “visual feast.” Thus, Zijin has formed a growth model of “resources as king, capacity support, and diversified hedging.”

Source: Tonghuashun iFinD - Operating Revenue

3. Profitable and explosive performance

In terms of profitability, the performance is even more impressive. In the first three quarters of 2025, the company achieved a net profit attributable to parent company owners of about 37.864 billion yuan, a year-over-year increase of 55.45%, with profit growth five times that of revenue.

Looking at the full year, according to the performance forecast released by the company on December 31, 2025: the company expects to achieve a net profit attributable to shareholders of about 51-52 billion yuan, an increase of approximately 18.9-19.9 billion yuan from the previous year, with a year-over-year growth of about 59%-62%. The net profit after deducting non-recurring gains and losses is expected to be about 47.5-48.5 billion yuan, up about 15.8-16.8 billion yuan, with a growth rate of about 50%-53%.

Source: Company Announcement

The fivefold difference between net profit and operating income indicates the company’s strong operating leverage. On one hand, it benefits from gross margin increases driven by metal prices; in the first three quarters of 2025, the gross profit margin was about 24.93%, up from 20.37% in 2024.

On the other hand, it also reflects the advantages of cost management. In the first three quarters of 2025, the gross profit margin increased by 4% compared to 2024, and net profit margin increased by 5%, demonstrating the value of operational cost control.

Source: Tonghuashun - Profitability and Earnings Quality

Overall, Zijin’s explosive performance is influenced by market price fluctuations, but more commendable is its “counter-cyclical acquisitions and pro-cyclical capacity release” strategy. Public information shows that during the copper and gold bear market in 2015, the company acquired copper-gold mines overseas; between 2022 and 2025, during the plunge in lithium prices, the company continued to buy lithium mines. When the market shifted from bear to bull, the company expanded and released capacity to seize opportunities during the bull market.

In short, opportunities are reserved for those who are prepared, and business operations follow the same principle.

Note: This article does not constitute any investment advice. The stock market carries risks; invest cautiously. No trading, no harm.