Friday, 21st January 2005 (2985 views)

Sino Gold has secured a £21.4 million loan to build China's second-largest gold mine, it has announced.

The Sydney-based firm was granted a much sought-after Government project permit rarely allocated to foreigners, which gives it the go-ahead to begin work on the Jinfeng lode site in south-western Guizhou province.

Sino, already the only foreign company mining gold in China, said it had completed the project financing facility, jointly underwritten by Standard Bank London and Bayerische Hypo-und Vereinsbank.

Gold mining in China has largely remained closed to outsiders, but the new deal will go some way towards changing that.

Sino chairman, Nick Curtis, told the New Zealand Herald: "The gold-mining sector is almost the last sector to be reformed.

"Mostly because until recently it was virtually 100 per cent state-owned . . . We are at the forefront of opening the mining sector."

He added: "There were several local groups lobbying that it was inappropriate for this deposit [Jinfeng] to be in a foreigner's hands," he said.

"The government is now making it apparent those pressures just don't work. The system is clear on that."

Jinfeng is expected to produce about 180,000 ounces of the precious metal annually with first gold pour planned for mid-2006

 

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