UBS: Maintaining Zijin Mining's (02899) “buy” rating target price of HK$57.8 is the main driving force for short-term copper production

The Zhitong Finance App learned that UBS released a research report stating that it maintains the “buy” rating of Zijin Mining (02899), with a target price of HK$57.8. The bank pointed out that short-term production delivery at the company's Lhasa Julong copper mine in Tibet has become the main pillar of business development in the region, while other regional projects support the next phase of growth.

After on-site inspection of the open pit mine, processing plant, tailings facilities, electric mine cards and green mine restoration area of the Julong Copper Mine, UBS believes that the production capacity of the second phase of the mining area project is progressing well and will continue to be the Group's largest copper production growth engine from 2026 to 2027. The bank pointed out that although the oxidation rate of the initial ore was high, the recovery rate has reached about 86% since the project was put into operation. It is believed that it can support the achievement of 300,000 to 310,000 tons and 310,000 to 320,000 tons of copper production guidelines for this year and next two years.

According to UBS, Zijin Mining maintains the overall copper production guideline of 1.2 million tons this year, but the Kamoa-Kakura copper mine in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) has a potential gap of about 50,000 tons, which may have an impact.