(Yicai) Dec. 12 -- The Porgera Gold Deposit in Papua New Guinea of Zijin Mining, one of China’s largest gold and copper producers, will finally resume production after remaining shut for more than three years because of a mining rights dispute.

The Porgera Gold Deposit will kick off operation on Dec. 22, with the first batch of qualified products expected to be ready in the first quarter of next year, the Fujian province-based company announced late yesterday.

In 2015, Zijin spent USD298 million to acquire a 50 percent stake in Barrick Niugini Limited, the operator of the Porgera Gold Deposit. Canadian mining giant Barrick Gold owns the other half of BNL’s equities.

In April 2020, the Papua New Guinea government rejected the application of BNL to extend the special mining rights of the Porgera Gold Deposit. One year later, the parties agreed to reduce BNL’s holdings in the Porgera Gold Deposit to 49 percent, with a local government-owned company owning the rest.

The Porgera Gold Deposit, which has 417 tons of gold resources, is expected to produce an average of 21 tons of gold per year, resulting in Zijin obtaining 5 tons of gold per year, given its about 25 percent stake in the project under the new equity arrangement.

The initial USD298 million investment in the mine had been fully recovered before production halted in 2020, said Zijin, which produced about 56.4 tons of gold last year.

Zijin’s shares [SHA: 601899] closed 0.4 percent down at CNY11.62 (USD1.62) in Shanghai today, after down as much as 1.7 percent earlier.

Editor: Futura Costaglione