CHINA Gold International Resources has had a strong start to the year at Jiama Copper-Gold Polymetallic Mine in Tibet Autonomous Region and at CSH Gold Mine in Inner Mongolia, leaving the company confident of meeting 2017 production guidance.

CHINA National Petroleum Corporation’s (CNPC) Consultation Centre has approved the Qinshui Basin Chengzhuang Cooperative CBM Block (GCZ) development plan of coal bed methane (CBM) group Green Dragon Gas. The plan includes drilling an additional 147 production wells at GCZ in Shanxi Province in 2017 and 2018.

SHANDONG Gold Group says it has discovered deposits that could be China’s largest gold discovery. The deposits are at Xiling mine, Shandong Province in the nation’s east.

CATERPILLAR will supply a complete longwall top coal caving (LTCC) armoured face conveyor system to Datong Coal Mine Group’s Majialiang coal mine. It will be the fifth set of Cat LTCC face conveyors delivered to the mine, which is near Datong City in Shanxi Province.

CHINA Gold International Resources has completed the phase II series I expansion project at the Jiama Polymetallic Project in Tibet Autonomous Region. The company expects the project will ramp up to full daily capacity of 22,000 tonnes by July 2017.

HONG Kong-listed MMG, a subsidiary of state-owned mining conglomerate China Minmetals, has started commercial operations at the Las Bambas Copper Project in Peru. The project is the largest overseas mining acquisition ever made by the Chinese.

MINCO Silver continues to focus on finalisation of the environmental impact assessment (EIA) report and permitting process in order to apply for a mining licence for the Fuwan Silver Project in southern China. The company has also applied for a renewal of the Mining Area Permit which expired earlier this year.

SILVERCORP Metals has attributed a significant increase in head grades of silver, lead and zinc at its Chinese operations to a new internal ‘Enterprise Blog’ system. This is an internet social media system that makes the distribution and flow of work-related knowledge and information easy and transparent for parties at different locations.

NEW Era Minerals is operating with reduced activity levels in order to control costs and maintain cash balances. This also applies to the company’s Suyeke North Nickel Project in Xinjiang-Uyghur Autonomous Region with no planned or budgeted works.

GOBIMIN has submitted the first of three Chinese standard geological reports required to convert the exploration licence of the Sawayaerdun Gold Project in Xinjiang Province into a mining licence. If the process goes well, a mining licence would be obtained by the end of 2017.

ELDORADO Gold expects to close the two transactions relating to the sale of its Chinese mining assets by the end of the year. The company says the sale of the Jinfeng, White Mountain and Tanjianshan mines as well as the Eastern Dragon development project for a total of US$900 million will result in an even stronger balance sheet.

GRIFFIN Mining expects operations to return to normal during the second half of 2016 at the Caijiaying precious and base metals mine. This follows a fatality at the mine in October 2015 which resulted in operations being shut down for five months.

WESTERN Mining’s subsidiary Tibet Yulong Copper Co is commissioning a new crushing mill and control systems at the Yulong Copper Project. The new facilities are expected to improve production and overcome issues caused by cold weather in the elevated area of Tibet in which the mine is located.

OPTIMISATION of operations is the ongoing focus of Majestic Gold at the Songjiagou Gold Project in Shandong Province. The company aims to achieve this through implementing a grade control program as well as developing an optimised mine plan.

CHINA Gold International Resources expects to complete construction of stage two of the expansion project at Jiama Copper-Polymetallic Project in Tibet Autonomous Region by the end of the year. The expansion will increase daily production capacity from 6000 to 50,000 tonnes.

CHINA Gold International Resources Corp expects to complete stage two of the processing plant upgrade at the Jiama Copper-Gold Polymetallic Project in Tibet Autonomous Region during the second half of 2016. Total daily processing capacity will increase to 50,000 tonnes upon completion of the two-stage expansion.

ELDORADO Gold, the largest foreign-owned gold miner still operating in China, is exiting the country after agreeing to sell its three operating projects and one development project. The Canadian-based miner has been operating successfully in China for 11 years.

Aspire Mining has welcomed the signing of a trilateral agreement between China, Russia and Mongolia that establishes a number of trade and cooperation initiatives between the trio, including a new rail corridor between Russia and China through Mongolia.

SPARTON Resources’ Chinese subsidiary Jiujiang Sparton Vanadium Trade and Tech Co Ltd (JJSP) has received notification that commissioning of the Zhangbei Project’s 8 Megawatt Hour Vanadium Flow Battery has been officially approved. An acceptance letter was received on February 22 from the battery’s owner, State Grid North China Company Limited.

CHINA Gold International Resources expects to increase total gold production from its Chinese operations to about 235,000 ounces in 2016 while copper production is expected to be steady at about 38.6 million pounds. Most of the increase in gold production will be from the Chang Shan Hao (CSH) Gold Project in Inner Mongolia.