Zijin Mining aims to produce a record 300,000oz of gold from its Buriticá mine in Antioquia, Colombia, despite facing an onslaught from criminal mining that means it cannot access half of the underground mine, Zijin's vice president Shen Shaoyang told delegates at the 2024 Gold Forum Americas in Colorado Springs, US.

In July, the company filed an international arbitration case against Colombia before the World Bank's International Centre for Settlement of Investment Disputes (ICSID) over alleged failures to protect its mining interests from illegal armed groups.

"Despite the challenges such as illegal mining, we are moving ahead with production expansion plans and expected to produce over 300,000oz this year, a historic high for the mine," Shen said.

The growth is part of a five-year plan that will see the company grow its gold production from 2.2Moz in 2023 to 3.2-3.5Moz in 2028, an annual growth rate of 8%. In 2023, its operations in China produced 700,000oz, South America 610,000oz and Australia 220,000oz. Production this year is forecast at 2.4Moz.

The company also plans to grow its copper business by 8% per year from just over 1Mtpa in 2023 to 1.5-1.6Mtpa. In 2023, its operations in China produced 435,000t, Democratic Republic of the Congo 300,000t and Serbia 240,000t. It has guided 1.1Mt of production this year.

"We are the largest copper producer among gold seniors," Shen said, also noting that copper generated the lion's share of company profits in 2023, accounting for 47.2% of its US$6.6 billion gross profit, with gold responsible for 25.4%.

Zijin also plans to increase its silver production to 19.3-22.5Moz in 2028, zinc from 467Mlb in 2023 to 550-600Mlb, and molybdenum from 8Mlb in 2023 to 25-35Mlb. It will also start producing lithium.