At the 2006 China Mining Conference held here on Wednesday (Nov 15), Chairman of the China Gold Association Cheng Fumin said that China welcomed foreign companies to participate in the restructuring of domestic goldmine companies by bringing in more of their funds, advanced technologies and mature managing experiences.

He says that in recent years, through incorporation, merging activities, asset restructuring, or by transforming into joint stock companies, some large companies in goldmine industry, such as the China National Gold Group Corporation, Shandong Gold Group Co.,Ltd., Shandong Zhaojin Group Co., Ltd., Zijin Mining Group Co.,Ltd., and Lingbao Gold Company Ltd., have become the leading companies in the goldmine industry in China. The reorganizing activities have greatly upgraded the industry's general competitiveness, rectified the market order of gold resources exploration, and created a favorable environment for investors.

However, due to historical reasons, some problems exist in the goldmine industry, such as an irrational industrial structure and a low intensive level. Although China has many goldmine companies, most of them are small in scale and industrial concentration level is low. Of all the current 1,200 goldmines in China, 739, or 61% of the total, can process less than 50 tons of gold ores daily. As a result, the advantage of scale operation can not be fully shown, advanced technologies cannot be applied in large scale, and goldmine companies have a weak capability to ward off business risks.