On the morning of April 6, the signing ceremony of strategic cooperation between SD-Gold and Barrick and the joint development of Valedero Gold Mine, Argentina by cooperation of the two parties was held in Jinan, Shandong.

Before the ceremony, Wang Shujian, vice-governor of Shandong Province met with the representatives present of both parties. He first congratulated on the strategic cooperation between SD-Gold and Barrick, extended a warm welcome to Mr. John Thornton and representatives who attended the signing ceremony, and extended the sincere thanks for the long-term care and supports given to the work of Shandong Province, especially the development of SD-Gold, on behalf of the People’s Government of Shandong Province. He stated that the People’s Government of Shandong .pays high attention to and strongly support the cooperation of SD-Gold and Barrick. Both parties can reach a strategic cooperation agreement and jointly develop the Valedero Gold Mine in Argentina, which can be said to be an important milestone in the upgrading of the bilateral cooperation. The Valedero Gold Mine Project has a large scale, high output, and good efficiency; Barrick has an experienced operation and management team; SD-Gold has good underground mine operation capabilities and advanced mining, dressing and refining technologies; thus, the prospect for future cooperation and development is very broad. It is hoped that both parties will take this cooperation as a new starting point, give full play to their respective advantages, develop pragmatic cooperation in a wider range and in more fields, and achieve win-win results and common development. In the meantime, he also hoped that Mr. Thornton will continue to pay attention to Shandong and provide more valuable opinions and suggestions for the economic construction of Shandong Province in the future to jointly help the economy of Shandong achieve better and faster development.

Zhang Xinwen, director of Shandong Development and Reform Commission, She Chunming, head of Department of Commerce of Shandong Province, Zhang Bin, director of Shandong Provincial State-owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission, Zhang Jigang, standing vice chairman of Shandong People’s Association for Friendship with Foreign Countries, Gong Zhiyuan, deputy inspector of General Office of the People’s Government of Shandong Province, Wang Xuchao, vice inspector of Shandong Provincial State-owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission and other leaders and experts from relevant departments attended the signing ceremony. John Thornton, chairman of the board of directors of Barrick, and Chen Yumin, president of SD-Gold, signed the strategic cooperation agreement on behalf of each party. Li Guohong, general manager of SD-Gold and president of Shandong Gold Mining Co., Ltd. (600547) signed the joint development agreement with Li Yucan, president of Greater China of Barrick. Chen Daojiang, director of SD-Gold, presided over the signing ceremony.

Zhang Bin, director of Shandong Provincial State-owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission, expressed warm congratulations on the signing ceremony on behalf of Shandong Province State-owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission. He extended his sincere welcome to the representatives of both parties and all sectors of the society attending the signing ceremony, and extended the sincere thanks to all friends for long-term care and support for state-own enterprises reform and development affairs of Shandong Provincial State-owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission. He pointed out that, as a provincial state-owned large-scale backbone enterprise and a leading enterprise in the domestic gold industry, SD-Gold has good large-scale mine operation and management capabilities and has many advantages in gold production, dressing and refining technology, deep prospecting, safety and environmental protection, etc. Barrick is the head of the world’s top ten gold producers and has a significant influence in the global industry. It is hoped that after signing ceremony, both parties will further give full play to their respective industrial advantages, comprehensively promote the depth and breadth of cooperation, enhance the level of strategic coordination, achieve a new leap in strategic development, and become a model of alliance between giants and mutual benefits. Shandong State-owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission will also spare no efforts to provide the optimal environment and the best all-around services for the cooperation and development of both parties.

Thornton, chairman of the board of directors of Barrick, stated that Barrick is committed to becoming the top company in the 21st century in its region and industry. To achieve this goal, it needs to establish the unique, lasting and trust-based cooperation relation with China and the best enterprises in China. Signing of this agreement is the unprecedented and crucial step to achieve this goal. SD-Gold is an ideal partner that will help Barrick to develop the potential wealth of the EL Indio gold mine belt from a long-term perspective, and create more value in the Valedero Gold Mine. Thornton revealed that both parties can share technology, talents and funds in mining and development, and create more value for their corporate owners, government and community partners by means of cooperation.

Chen Yumin, president of SD-Gold, extended the sincere thanks to the relevant departments for their care and support, and to all guests and media friends for going to the site personally to witness this important historic moment. He pointed out that, SD-Gold has always devoted itself to building the internationalized and modernized world-class mine group, focused on making the gold mine “excellent and strong” and spared no efforts to advance bravely towards the strategic gold of “striving to be a world-class mining enterprise, and bravely fighting for the world’s top ten mining enterprise”. In his opinion, nothing, not even mountains and seas, can separate people with common goals and ideals. The establishment of strategic alliance between SD-Gold and Barrick has not only achieved substantial progress in the joint development of the Valedero Gold Mine in Argentina, but also opened a new channel for SD-Gold to enter the global mining and international capital markets, both of which create more development opportunities and brighter development prospects for both parties. In future cooperation, SD-Gold will strictly implement the cooperation agreement, provide technologies, capitals, and human resources without reserve, fully accelerate the construction and development of projects, and constantly create more and larger value. He also hoped that, in the near future, SD-Gold will cooperate with Barrick in more fields and at deeper level, and work together to write a new chapter in cooperative development.

It is learned that Barrick Gold Corporation, which was founded in 1983, is a transnational mining company mainly engaged in gold prospecting and development; Barrick has the minable and expectedly minable gold reserves of 86.90 million ounces and verified and controlled gold resource reserves of 75.20 million ounces in the global range. Its gold exploration, mining, dressing and refining technologies take the lead in the world. Its corporate stocks have been listed in Toronto and New York. Since the second half year of 2016, Barrick has started the “one-to-one” cooperation negotiation with SD-Gold in terms of Valedero Gold Mine in Argentina. After more than 8 months, a series of work including due diligence, technical exchange, expert argumentation, etc. were completed. Valedero Gold Mine, located in the northwest of Argentina, is the largest gold mine in production in Argentina and the second largest gold mine in production in South America. This mine was constructed from 2003 and put into production in September 2005. It is located in EL Indio gold mine belt, thus it has the broad prospect of increasing reserves.

As the first step for cooperation between both parties, SD-Gold will spend 0.96 billion US dollars in buying 50% stock rights of Veladero Gold Mine in Argentina. In the second step, both parties will establish the work team to discuss joint development of Pascua-Lama ore deposits in the EL Indio gold mine belt at the border between Argentina and Chile and other projects with good prospects by cooperation, This mine belt contains the world-class gold ore deposits, including Veladero, Pascua-Lama and Alturas.

Signing between both parties means that SD-Gold has taken a substantial step in overseas development and embarked on a truly international company-building road. It can increase its reserves of overseas resources, advanced technology, and international talents to lay a solid foundation for the realization of the strategic goal of “striving to be a world-class mining enterprise, and bravely fighting for the world’s top ten mining enterprise”, in the meantime, it also can enhance the global influence of Shandong gold and even China’s gold industry, and make more contributions to the economic and social development of Shandong Province.