China’s Zijin Mining Group announced on Friday that it is going ahead with the second phase of a major expansion at its Julong copper project in Tibet, after receiving government approval.
The permit will allow Zijin to increase the mine’s capacity to 350,000 tonnes per day by 2025. Once the Julong expansion is completed, the asset will become China’s largest single copper operation, with ore mining and processing volumes of more than 100 million tonnes a year.
Total investment required for the project has been pegged at about 17.5 billion yuan ($2.43 billion), Zijin said. It added it’s already planning to further increase production and capacity at the Tibet mine.
If the third phase of expansion is approved by local authorities, Julong could raise annual output to about 200 million tonnes, making it the largest single copper mine in the world, Zijin said.
The company, China’s largest gold miner and one of the country’s top copper producers, took control of the Julong project in 2020 and had it up and running only 18 months later.
Zijin has several assets in Tibet, including the Zhunuo copper mine, which it acquired in August 2023. It also has a controlling interest in lithium producer Lakkor Resources, and is the second-largest shareholder of Tibet-based companies Yulong Copper and Tianyuan Mining.