A major 18.258-billion-yuan controlling stake transaction has significantly reshaped China's gold industry landscape amid elevated gold prices. On March 23, Chifeng Gold, dual-listed in A-shares and H-shares, and domestic mining leader Zijin Mining jointly announced the completion of the largest control transfer in China's gold sector among privately listed mining firms in recent years. Zijin Mining secured a 25.85% stake in Chifeng Gold through a package deal involving "A-share agreement transfer + H-share private placement," achieving controlling interest and consolidation. Former actual controller Li Jinyang will exit completely by selling her entire stake.

Despite the near-parity takeover with only a 1.3% premium, the market reacted negatively. Upon resuming trading, Chifeng Gold's A-shares hit the daily limit down while H-shares plunged 24% in a single day. Zijin Mining, which held its best-ever earnings conference on the same day, also saw its shares drop 3.38%, hitting lows not seen since 2026. The market's clear disapproval reflected doubts about the acquisition's value at peak prices and concerns about synergy realization.

This change of control at the top private gold producer not only recalls the industry history of a former Zijin executive leading the company back into his old employer's portfolio but also signals a shift in the gold industry's competitive dynamics from resource grabbing to capital efficiency comparisons.

**Peak Exit**

The peak moment marked the time of departure. On Monday, March 19, Chifeng Gold urgently suspended trading. That evening, Chairman Wang Jianhua, who leads this private gold leader, posted an impromptu poem on social media with the line "Purple aura surges in," hinting at the outcome to industry insiders familiar with him, according to sources close to Chifeng Gold.

After three trading days, the mystery was solved. On the morning of March 23, Chifeng Gold and Zijin Mining simultaneously announced the deal, finalizing the largest control transfer of a private mining enterprise in China's gold industry in recent years. Zijin Mining spent 18.258 billion yuan to acquire a 25.85% stake in Chifeng Gold via the package plan, achieving control and consolidation.

Synchronized with Zijin Mining's takeover was the complete exit of former actual controller Li Jinyang, who will divest all her Chifeng Gold shares without reservation.

This day came less than three days after Chifeng Gold reported its strongest annual results since listing.

Observations indicate this was a control transfer design with mutually effective conditions. On the A-share side, Zijin Gold, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Zijin Mining, acquired 242 million shares held by Li Jinyang and her concert parties at 41.36 yuan per share, totaling 10.006 billion yuan, a mere 1.3% premium to the pre-suspension closing price, effectively a parity handover. After the transaction, Li Jinyang's side will fully exit.

On the H-share side, Chifeng Gold conducted a private placement of 311 million shares to Zijin Gold at 30.19 Hong Kong dollars per share, raising 9.386 billion Hong Kong dollars, a 17% discount to the 60-day average price before the agreement. Post-transaction, Zijin Mining will secure over two-thirds of the listed company's board seats, gaining full control over operational decisions.

The groundwork for this peak exit was laid over three years ago. In 2012, Chifeng Gold founder Zhao Meiguang completed a backdoor listing, transforming a regional firm with only three small-to-medium gold mines into a top domestic private gold producer within a decade. However, he passed away unexpectedly in 2021 just before the company's earnings surge, with all his shares inherited by his spouse Li Jinyang.

Without mining operation experience, Li Jinyang never intervened in daily management, delegating all decision-making power to the professional team led by Wang Jianhua.

Wang Jianhua, who served as president of Zijin Mining from 2013 to 2016 and was a key architect of its global strategy, successfully replicated the proven "gold-focused, global layout" strategy at his former employer, propelling Chifeng Gold into the industry's top tier.

Observations note that during Wang Jianhua's tenure at Shandong Gold, Zijin Mining, and Chifeng Gold, each mining group significantly increased its resource reserves and production.

2025 marked Chifeng Gold's performance peak since listing. That year, it listed on the Hong Kong Exchange, becoming Inner Mongolia's first A+H dual-listed gold enterprise. Its annual report showed revenue of 12.64 billion yuan, net profit attributable to shareholders of 3.082 billion yuan, a 74.7% year-on-year increase from 2024, gross sales margin of 52.47%, and debt-to-asset ratio dropping to a historic low of 33.91%.

By the end of 2025, its consolidated gold resources stood at 583 tons with an average grade of 1.54 grams per ton. It operated six gold mines and one polymetallic mine, covering China, Southeast Asia, and West Africa. Key domestic mines like Jilong Mining and Wulong Mining had gold grades exceeding 7 grams per ton, offering significant cost advantages. The overseas Sepon Mine in Laos held exclusive exploration rights over 1,127 square kilometers, while the Wassa Gold Mine in Ghana, located in the renowned Ashanti Gold Belt, had excellent mineralization potential and substantial reserve growth prospects.

For Li Jinyang, exiting at the peak of both the company and the industry represents the most rational financial closure. For Wang Jianhua, the transaction completes a destined cycle—he personally built Chifeng Gold into a core competitor of his former employer, only to eventually return it to Zijin Mining's industrial chessboard.

**From Counter-Cyclical to Pro-Cyclical Investment Shift**

The 18.258-billion-yuan control acquisition has placed Zijin Mining, long known for "counter-cyclical bottom-fishing," at the center of market debate over "buying at peak prices."

Driven by safe-haven demand and asset diversification, global gold market investment enthusiasm rose significantly in 2025. By end-December 2025, the London spot gold fixing price had increased 62.90% since the start of the year. According to the World Gold Council, total global gold demand (including over-the-counter trading) exceeded 5,000 tons for the first time in 2025. Gold prices repeatedly hit record highs throughout the year, setting new records 53 times, with total global gold demand value reaching $555 billion, up 45% year-on-year.

The market's biggest question targets why this "mining bottom-fishing king" broke its decades-held acquisition logic—choosing to make a large move during a window of historically high gold prices without significant valuation discounts on the target assets.

In fact, this is not Zijin Mining's first move in a high gold price environment. In recent years, as international gold prices entered a super bull market, Zijin Mining has quietly adjusted its acquisition pace, moving beyond a pure counter-cyclical bottom-fishing framework. In 2025, it completed the acquisition of two large producing gold mines overseas—the Akyem Gold Mine in Ghana and the Ridgeway Gold Mine in Kazakhstan—supporting its gold production growth that year.

Early in 2026, Zijin Gold International, a controlled listed subsidiary of Zijin Mining, acquired all shares of Canadian United Gold for 28 billion yuan, securing its future production increments.

During the March 23 earnings briefing, Lin Hongfu, vice chairman and president of Zijin Mining, stated that the Chifeng Gold acquisition highly aligns with the company's gold-focused strategy and is a key move for its gold sector layout. He noted that Chifeng Gold's mines in Ghana, Laos, and China have strong exploration prospects and further production potential.

"Short-to-medium term gold prices may experience sharp fluctuations, but long-term, fundamental issues like global governance order and fiat currency oversupply remain unresolved. The logic for high or further rising gold prices hasn't changed. Zijin Group will not become a pure investment platform; core assets will definitely remain in our hands," Lin Hongfu stated.

Zijin Mining's growth history is itself a textbook of counter-cyclical acquisitions. Early on, the Zijinshan Gold-Copper Mine, deemed uneconomical with an average grade of only 0.37 grams per ton, was revitalized into China's largest single gold mine through self-developed mining and metallurgical technologies, establishing the profit foundation of "undervalued assets + technological empowerment + cost control."

Over decades, this logic solidified into replicable acquisition criteria: focus on quality minerals undervalued by the market, leverage the "ore flow five-cycle integration" technical management system, revitalize existing assets through technical upgrades and refined management, and realize excess returns during cyclical upswings.

With the Chifeng Gold acquisition, Zijin Mining still attempts to explain the transaction logic using this mature model. The announcement indicates that Chifeng Gold's mines are all producing, contributing output and profit immediately upon acquisition. Constrained by previous insufficient exploration investment, resource growth potential remains untapped, which Zijin Mining can unlock with its exploration expertise.

Deeper strategic considerations lie in the changing global mining landscape. Access to quality overseas gold mines is becoming increasingly difficult; domestic quality gold resources are scarce, and industry competition is intensifying.

From Zijin Mining's perspective, acquiring a listed entity allows lower-cost access to multiple project resources, diversifying investment risks while completing the securitized platform layout for its gold segment.

A Shenzhen brokerage nonferrous metals chief analyst noted that market disagreement over "buying expensive" essentially reflects differing views on gold's future trajectory. However, for Zijin Mining, this transaction is not a short-term financial investment but a long-term strategic positioning in the global gold arena. Securing a target with a mature overseas operations team, quality producing mines, and clear reserve growth potential holds far greater long-term value than short-term price fluctuations.

Once the deal closes, China's gold industry competitive landscape will be directly reshaped. Based on 2025 production, Zijin Mining's annual gold output will jump from 90 tons to 104.3 tons (approximately 3.68 million ounces), breaking the 100-ton barrier, further consolidating its domestic leadership and steadily advancing toward global top gold giant status.

Concurrently, Zijin Mining has committed to resolving同业竞争 issues within 60 months of gaining control. Chifeng Gold will become its differentiated gold listed platform, precisely targeting resource acquisition opportunities at different levels and strengthening full-chain integration capabilities.

Controversies and risks remain unavoidable. The announcement clearly states that final deal completion still requires multiple preconditions, including anti-monopoly review, exchange compliance confirmation, and Chifeng Gold shareholder approval, with uncertainty remaining about the control change's realization.

More market attention focuses on the target asset's profit pressure. In 2025, impacted by significant cost increases at the Wassa Gold Mine in Ghana, Chifeng Gold's per-gram operating cost for gold production rose to 326 yuan, with all-in sustaining cost reaching 373 yuan per gram. The Wassa Gold Mine's all-in sustaining cost hit $1,973 per ounce, approaching current international gold price levels. If gold prices experience sustained significant corrections in the future, the target's performance will face substantial downward pressure, significantly diminishing the transaction's profit expectations.

From founder Zhao Meiguang's backdoor listing to the professional team achieving global layout, to being acquired by the industry leader at the performance peak, Chifeng Gold's 14-year capital journey concludes in this manner.

For Zijin Mining, this acquisition, breaking its own precedent, represents both a continuation of its "resources first" strategy and a proactive move in reshaping the global gold industry landscape. Amid global monetary system turbulence and intensifying competition for core resources, the curtain has risen on consolidation among China's gold industry leaders.