In late August the Zijin Mining Group established the Zijin Global Electronic Metal Exchange after receiving approval of the Shenzhen Financial Development Services Office. The exchange, a third party metal trading platform, has been set up in the Shenzhen Qianhai Cooperation Zone.

The exchange’s business scope includes transactions of various metals, excluding gold, metal products and all kinds of mineral resources products. It involves the support of a spot trading e-commerce platform and marketing services as well as a related investment consulting business, cross-border RMB business services and other related business.

Zijin reported an adjusted first half of 2014 revenue of 23.99 billion Yuan (about US$3.9 billion) which represented a 7.7% decrease over the same period of 2013. Due to the sharp drop in prices, with gold down 15.2% and copper down 8.3%, the group’s total profit decreased by 1.191 billion Yuan (about US$193.51 million) compared to the same period of 2013.

The company’s net profit in the six months was 1.109 billion Yuan (about US$180.18 million), which was up 1.03%. The main reasons were an increase in production which offset the negative impacts of lower prices, a reduction in the loss of smelting and processing operations, and effective cost controls.

The group produced almost 1.918 million ounces of gold in the six months, representing a 7.17% growth over the corresponding period of 2013, and more than 181,320 tonnes of copper, an increase of 14.15%.