(Yicai Global) Oct. 19 -- China’s Zijin Mining said a subsidiary has inked a deal to purchase a gold mine in Suriname, one of the largest in operation in South America, for USD360 million.

Silver Source Group will acquire 95 percent of Rosebel Gold Mines’ A-shares and all of its B-shares from Canada’s Iamgold, Fujian-based gold producer Zijin Mining said in a statement yesterday.

Owned by RGM, the Rosebel gold mine yielded 160,175 kilograms of gold from 2004 to 2021, an average of 8,900 kg a year. It had strong profits for years, but output began to drop in 2019 due to the pandemic, intense rainfalls, and no cleaning of its cover layer. The mine produced 3,175 kg of gold in the first half, compared with 5,330 kg last year.

Rosebel’s existing deposits have not yet reached the depth and boundary limits and the area it sits in has a great potential to unearth more gold ores. RGM, which also owns a 70 percent stake in a new unincorporated joint venture with the Suriname government, has discovered several new gold ores since the Rosebel mine came into production.

Zijin Mining also announced on Oct. 12 that it had acquired a 30 percent stake in Shandong Ruiyin Mining Industry to become the second-largest shareholder in the owner of Haiyu Gold Mine, China’s biggest. It is located in the sea to the north of Sanshan Island, off Laizhou in Shandong province.

Shares of Zijin Mining [SHA: 601899] fell 1 percent today to close at CNY7.92 (USD1.10) each. The broader Shanghai market also fell, retreating 1.2 percent.

Editor: Futura Costaglione