Zijin Mining has said that on January 23, 2026, Section 2 of the Julong Copper Mine venture was formally accomplished and put into manufacturing. Based mostly on the prevailing mining and processing scale of 150,000 t/d, an extra manufacturing scale of 200,000 t/d will probably be newly added to Julong Copper Mine, leading to an general manufacturing scale of 350,000 t/d.
After Julong Section 2 Undertaking reaches the designated manufacturing capability, the annual ore mining and processing scale of the Julong Copper Mine will improve from 45 Mt to 105 Mt. The annual mine-produced copper output will improve from 190,000 t in 2025 to roughly 300,000 t to 350,000 t (the mine-produced copper output is predicted to achieve 300,000 t in 2026); the annual mine-produced molybdenum output will improve from 8,000 t in 2025 to roughly 13,000 t; and the annual mine-produced silver output will improve from 109 t in 2025 to roughly 230 t.
The Julong Copper Mine will develop into the most important copper mine in China and in addition a world-class super-large copper mine with the very best altitude and the bottom cut-off grade globally. The Julong Copper Mine is located in a high-altitude, extraordinarily chilly and oxygen-deficient space at over 5,000 m above sea degree, the place the pure geographical situations are harsh and the working situations are unfavourable. The problem for development administration is extraordinarily excessive.
Zijin states: “Because the firm acquired and took the lead within the development and operation of the Julong Copper Mine in June 2020, it has leveraged its sturdy full-process self-initiated applied sciences and engineering R&D innovation capabilities, in addition to the Zijin spirit of ‘perseverance, entrepreneurship, innovation.’ The completion of development and graduation of manufacturing of the Section 1 venture was realised inside solely roughly 18 months. Because the graduation of development of the Julong Section 2 Undertaking, the corporate has once more accomplished development and put the venture into manufacturing inside roughly 18 months.”
At current, the corporate is additional planning for the implementation of the part 3 venture of the Julong Copper Mine. If the venture is permitted by the related authorities authorities, the ultimate mining altitude of the Section 3 venture will probably be lowered from 4,452 m below the Julong Section 2 Undertaking to three,880 m. The copper reserves accessible for improvement inside the boundary will exceed 20 Mt, with the annual ore mining and processing quantity reaching roughly 200 Mt. This may make the Julong Copper Mine the most important copper mine on this planet by then by way of mining and processing scale, with an annual copper output of roughly 600,000 t after reaching the designated manufacturing capability.
In response to the useful resource reserves filed by the Julong Copper Mine with the pure sources administration authorities in 2024, the cumulative recognized copper steel sources quantity of the Julong Copper Mine was 25.88 Mt, which was roughly 2.5 occasions the verified copper steel sources quantity of 10.41 Mt on the time of acquisition by the corporate. This makes the Julong Copper Mine the most important copper mine in China by way of the filed sources quantity. Moreover, the Julong Copper Mine has 1.672 Mt of related molybdenum steel sources quantity with a median grade of 0.019%, and 15,145 t of silver steel with a median grade of 1.68 g/t.
The corporate’s wholly-owned subsidiary and Zangge Mining Co Ltd, a listed firm held by the corporate, maintain an mixture of 80.88% curiosity within the Julong Copper Mine. The proportion of direct and oblique curiosity owned by the corporate is 58.16%.
Zijin concludes: “The completion of development and graduation of manufacturing of the Julong Section 2 Undertaking will considerably improve the excellent energy of the corporate’s copper section. The Julong Copper Mine, alongside the corporate’s core copper initiatives in Serbia and the Democratic Republic of the Congo, have develop into three progress drivers for the copper business improvement. As well as, the successive development, manufacturing graduation, technological improve and capability enlargement of a number of different key copper initiatives of the corporate will drive a sustained progress in mine-produced copper manufacturing of the corporate, which is of nice significance to the consolidation of the corporate’s main place within the international copper business and the achievement of its strategic purpose of changing into a number one international mining firm.”
