October 23, Caixin News (Reporter: Liang Xiangcai). The Jiulong Copper Mine project, with an annual copper production exceeding 0.3 million tons after the completion of the second phase expansion, has attracted much attention from investors. zijin mining group (601899.SH) stated at today's third quarter earnings conference that the second phase expansion project of Jiulong Copper Mine is expected to achieve trial production in the first quarter of 2026.

Regarding the follow-up planning of Jiulong Copper Mine, the company stated that after the completion of the second phase engineering & construction, further planning will be carried out to implement the third phase engineering. If the project is approved by the relevant government departments, the final mining altitude of the third phase project will be reduced from 4452 meters in the second phase to 4090 meters. The copper reserves available for development within the boundary will exceed 20 million tons, with an expected annual ore mining scale of about 0.2 billion tons, making it the largest copper mine in the world in terms of mining scale. The annual copper production is expected to be around 0.6 million tons.

The announcement shows that Jiulong Copper Mine plans to produce 0.166 million tons of copper in 2024; 0.1544 million tons of copper in 2023, ranking second in output among the company's main copper mines. Jiulong Copper Mine has reserves of 19.27 million tons of copper, 0.0106 million tons of silver, and 1.2 million tons of molybdenum. After the completion of the second phase expansion project, the overall annual ore mining volume will exceed 0.1 billion tons, and the annual copper production will reach 0.3 million to -0.35 million tons, making it the largest mining scale domestically and the largest single copper mine in the world that will be put into production in this century.

Of note, the company's related lithium resource projects are progressing slower than expected. The company stated at the earnings conference that due to delays in project approval procedures and the continuous low prices of lithium carbonate, the company will postpone the commissioning of the 3Q project in Argentina and the Laguna Cauchari project in Tibet to 2025.

Regarding the future outlook of the lithium industry, zijin mining group has also made predictions. The company believes that the current oversupply situation in the lithium industry has not shown a clear reverse, and the short-term downward trend in lithium prices will continue. The rapid price decline is conducive to achieving a quick balance between supply and demand. In the medium to long term, there is still significant demand space in the global new energy autos and energy storage industry. It is estimated that by 2030, global demand for lithium carbonate will exceed 3 million tons. With the completion of this round of inventory and capacity clearance cycle, the future will require a relatively reasonable lithium price to stimulate the release of lithium supply in response to the growing demand.

In terms of performance, zijin mining group achieved revenue of 230.396 billion yuan in the first three quarters of this year, an increase of 2.39% year-on-year; net income attributable to shareholders of the listed company was 24.357 billion yuan, an increase of 50.68% year-on-year, continuing the good momentum of a roughly 50% year-on-year increase seen in the first half of the year.