In 2007, geologists discovered roughly 5.2 million ounces of gold in the Gansu Province of China, specifically in the Yangshan deposit. Foreign based mining companies rushed to the scene, and companies such as China Mineral Company and JinShan Gold Minerals made staggering profits as many found that the amount of gold may have exceeded geologist’s expectations.
These successes have attracted the eye of larger mining groups, such as Ivanhoe mines and Zijin Mining Group, which is one of the world’s largest gold producers and is listed on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange. These Mining conglomerates have been known to buy out smaller companies in favour of merging small sites into a giant one, and are capable of extracting hundreds of tonnes of gold.
In 2006, Ivanhoe mines bought up 42% of Jinshan Gold Mines, only to turn around and sell to China National Gold Group Corp., a government-owned mining conglomerate, two years later. The move was said to be very profitable for Ivanhoe. In a country where mining consolidation is the name of the game, one can only wonder how much longer an independently owned company situated in the Gansu Province (such as China Mineral Company) will stay that way.