Zijin’s investment unit aims to expand strategic metal portfolio

Zijin Mining Group, China’s biggest gold and copper producer, wants to invest in metals like tungsten and uranium, as the global bid to secure critical minerals drives prices higher.

“We are looking to expand our position in tungsten and other strategic metals,” including uranium, Lisa Liu, managing director and portfolio manager of Gold Mountains Asset Management Ltd., said in a recent interview.

As a wholly-owned subsidiary of Zijin, the firm manages some of the mining giant’s financial investments, including stakes in Montage Gold Corp. and Equinox Gold Corp. Gold Mountains has over $6 billion in assets under management, with around 75% in gold and the rest in copper, lithium, uranium and other metals.

Tungsten, a super-dense material used in drilling equipment and armor-piercing weaponry, has more than doubled in value this year due to Chinese export curbs and rising military demand. Prices of uranium, the fuel in nuclear reactors, have also rallied over the past few years in anticipation of a surge in atomic energy demand.

Mines containing rare earths — a subset of critical minerals used widely in electric vehicles, weapons systems and high-tech manufacturing — are also on the company’s radar, said Liu. But good projects are hard to come by and “many of them are either very expensive or will need a long time” before becoming productive, she said.

Gold Mountains has a sizable cash buffer that could be invested in a project at once. “If a major shareholder suddenly looks to offload a large stake, we can step in and absorb it immediately,” said Liu.

Gold remains an important part of the business. “Given all the uncertainty — whether it’s global conflicts or changes to monetary systems — there has to be an anchor for storing wealth. That anchor will inevitably be gold,” she said.

(By Yihui Xie)