The Dapingzhang Mine is the Group's first interest in a producing mine, a mine with recoverable copper, zinc, lead, gold and silver. The Dapingzhang Mine is located in southwest Yunnan Province in China, some 310 kilometres from Kunming, the provincial capital of Yunnan Province. The mine is connected to the main highway to Simao City by 38 kilometres of ungraded road. The Group holds a 40% equity interest through a Sino-foreign equity joint venture enterprise with two Chinese partners.


The area consists of rugged topography (approximately 500 meters of relief) at an altitude of approximately 1,200 meters above sea level. The climate is subtropical with a rainy season typically from July to September. By Chinese standards the area around the Dapingzhang Mine area is sparsely populated, mainly by subsistence farmers.

Production commenced in 2004 and it is understood that over 1 million tonnes of ore has been mined from three existing open pits and was processed at four mills. In addition, a start-up small heap leach gold operation was used to treat a weathered residue which capped the sulphide mineralisation.


Since the group invested in the operation in April 2006, a total of 1,868,812 tonnes of ore have been processed, resulting in the sales of 14,373 tonnes of copper, 46,901 tonnes of zinc, 142Kg gold and 8723Kg Silver. (as at the 31st December 2008).