Good morning investors and friends. I am Zheng Youcheng, Board Secretary of Zijin Mining. Welcome to our 2024 annual results presentation. This event is being live streamed globally from Xiamen and Hong Kong via the SSE Roadshow Center. English. Simultaneous interpretation is also provided through a separate live stream. Investors can tune in through the Internet, telephone or the interactive portal. You may also ask questions and make comments via telephone or the Internet. The executives present at today's presentation are Mr. Chen Jinghe, Executive Director and Chairman. Mr. Zou Laichang, Executive Director, Vice President, Vice Chairman and President Mr. Xie Xionghui, Zijin Mining to deliver some opening remarks. Good morning investors and friends. Welcome to Zijin Mining's 2024 annual results presentation.
First, on behalf of Zijin Mining, I thank the investors and people from all quarters for your interest in and trust and support of us over the years. Today, we will update you on our 2024 performance and are eager to listen to your comments and suggestions. 2024 marked the beginning of our new Five Year Plan. Under the strategic leadership of the Board and Chairman Chen Jing he, we followed the overarching principle of improving quality, controlling costs and boosting profitability. Amid complex challenges, we seized growth opportunities, achieving outstanding results across all fronts. First, our mineral output saw significant growth. Copper production reached 1.07 million tons, gold output 73 tons. Our global rankings are expected to rise to number four and number six globally. Meticulous cost control efforts were strengthened, rapid cost increases were effectively curbed and overall operating costs decreased significantly, driving record high performance.
Third, our growth foundations were solidified, resource and reserves expanded substantially and construction of key projects progressed rapidly. Fourth, value creation capabilities gained strong recognition. By year end, our A- share and H-share closing prices rose by 24% and 30% respectively. Our H- share refinancing of $2.5 million was the largest financing deal for mining companies listed in Hong Kong last year. Fifth, we made new strides in our ESG performance. We advanced green low carbon development, perceived development for all and our annual development. Our dividend payments reached RMB 9.7 billion . Our total social contributions hit RMB 7.5 billion. I n 2024, c ommitted to building a world class metals and mining company will unlock potential at producing assets and enhance the systematic cost control capabilities to drive organic growth. We will accelerate the construction of incremental copper, gold and lithium projects to strengthen our foundation for output growth.
We will further improve our international operations management system and consolidate our global competitiveness. We will monitor geopolitical, regional and global strengthen our ESG system to drive green high quality and sustainable growth. Lastly, thank you again for your unwavering support and trust in us. Let us join hands to write a new chapter for the high quality development of the mining industry. Thank you.
Thank you, President Zou. Investors and friends, good morning. I'm honored to speak on behalf of the management to present our 2024 performance. There are three parts in my presentation. First, a financial review. During the reporting period, our revenue was up 3.5% reaching RMB 303.6 billion and our copper segment contributed 45%, gold, 30%, zinc 4.6% and silver and other segments 20%. Our total profits reached RMB 48.1 billion , up 53.7%. Our net attributable profit reached RMB 32.1 billion, up 51.8%.
Our operating net cash flow was RMB 48.9 billion, up 32.6%. We also saw an increase of RMB 2.6 billion in share price increases in [agro] mines. Our total assets was up 15, 15.6%. Year on year, our share of net debt to EBITDA dropped by 28.6%. Our debt ratio dropped by 4.47%. Our cash dividend payout increased by 53.5% and our EPS was RMB 1.21 , up 51.3% year on year. We are committed to producing cleaner, more sustainable and responsible copper. We are the only copper miner with the output of more than 1 million tons in China and Asia, we are number four in copper output. We are one of the fastest growing copper producer with the largest output in recent years and we achieved 24% CAGR in the past five years for copper output.
We ranked number eight in terms of attributable copper resources and number five in terms of attributable copper reserves. During the period, our copper growth rose by 6.1% with the increment coming from Sofia, the zinc mining services in Copper, Kamoa and Julong Copper. We overcame rising costs overseas, achieving 4.3% drop in copper concentrate costs and electron copper prices was increased due to power issues in the DRC. We are still in the first 20 percentile in terms of C1 costs. Globally, our gross profit of copper concentrate was up 66%. And the gross profit margin of our Gold Council committed to responsible gold extraction. During the reporting period, we ranked number six in copper output. By the end of the reporting period, our gold resources was 3,973 tons and our gold reserve was 1,487 tons, number six in the world.
During the reporting period, our mined copper output was up 7.7% with increments mainly coming from Continental Gold, Aurora [Gold Z inc] and other companies. Rising gold costs. Rising gold prices has increased costs and taxes. However, we still are at a low level in the industry excluding the impact from taxes. Our overall sustaining costs are basically the same with last year. Thanks to higher gold prices, our gold ingot gross profit margin was 46% and our gold concentrate gross profit margin was nearly 68%, more than 10 percentage points higher over the previous year. We produced 410,000 tons of mined zinc by the end of the year. We have 157,000 tons of zinc resources and 639 tons of zinc reserves due to lower feed grades. During this reporting period, our mined zinc output dropped by 3.5%. However, our cost was down by 5.7%.
Our zinc gross profit was 41%, a significant increase over the past five years. Last year we also produced significant amounts of silver and zinc, cobalt and molybdenum and tungsten as shown in the slides and project updates which is the second part. Our copper segment in [Zijinshan] China. [Zijinshan] is an important area for our resources and resources of more than 25 million tons of copper and also associated molybdenum. We are advancing phase two expansion for Julong Copper which is expected to be put into production by the end of this year. Annual copper output will reach a combined 350,000 tons. It will become the largest copper mine in the century in the world. We are also advancing the phase three permitting. The ultimate output per annum will reach 600,000 tons. Julong Copper has a copper resource of 2.94 million tons.
In September last year, the mining and processing licenses have been secured and it will be put into production by the end of next year with an annual output of 76,000 tons of copper. Copper has associated gold of 202 tons and also associated with silver and significant amounts of copper. We are the operator of this project. The permitting have been completed. We are now planning for construction. Upon commissioning, it will produce 46,000 tons of copper per year. Julong Copper is the second largest copper mine. We have more than 32% of interest in the project. During the period, our combined output In Serbia was 293,000 tons and 8 tons of gold. The Bor copper mine has copper resources of 11.52 million tons and 383 tons of gold and the Cukaru Peki also has significant resources. These combined will through expansion reach a copper output of 450,000 tons per annum.
The [MT] copper gold mine has completed initial exploration activities. The copper resources is 2.81 million tons, average grade 1.87% gold resources 92 tones and average grade 0.1 grams per ton. The ore body is not closed yet. There is still potential for further exploration. The Kamoa copper mine copper resources 42.27 million tons plant output plant in 2025 580,000 tons. Its 500,000 tons per annum smelter is expected to be commissioned in June this year and this will position Kamoa as the third largest copper mine in the world. [Kolwezii] copper mine has a copper resource of 1.43 million tons and copper and cobalt 34,000 tons. Plant output is 110,000 tons of copper this year. South America is also an important base for output. The Buritica gold mine has gold resources of 333,000 tons and silver resources of 1,000 tons.
Last year we overcame the impact of illegal mining producing 10 tons of mined gold and 26 tons of mined silver. The Roosevelt Gold Mine has a gold resource of 195 tons. Their debottlenecking project has been completed and are striving for an annual output of 10 tons of gold. Guyana debottlenecking project for porcelain plant is being advanced. The Lavrinhaa project gold resources 188 tons and copper 2.7 million tons. We are going to expand the phase one life of mine for this project. For phase two, we want to achieve 33 million tons of throughput per year. The construction period is three years and the production period will be 33 years. Annual gold output will be 3 tons in Oceania, Central Asia and Africa. We also have many projects. Production guidance 3.3 tons of gold progress project is also becoming stable after restart.
We also have a Solomon- based Gold Ridge project which is conducting further exploration. The La Arena gold project which has not been closed for the transaction has a gold resource of 89 tons and based on the original production schedule during the life of mine, annual gold output is 5.8 tons. Within China we also have multiple high quality gold assets. Chinese gold resources 119 tons. In 2024, mined gold output was 3.4 tons. It's 60,000 tons per day. Processing capacity has been built. Gold resources 128 tons and the processing debottlenec king project has been completed.
Slated for July 2025. For commissioning, the [Sawaya'erdun] Gold Mine has resources of 113 tons. We plan for open pit first and then underground. The 2.4 Mtpa open pit project and 5 tpa gold refinery has been commissioned. We are now proceeding with ramp up after the project will be able to produce 3.3 tons of gold per year and the seabed gold mine will be able to produce 15 to 20 tons of gold after commissioning and ramp up. It's expected to be the largest gold mine in China. As for lithium, the Xizang Lakkor Salar has been approved by the government and phase one is expected to be commissioned by the end of Q1 2025 and is expected to achieve zero carbon lithium extraction.
After phase one and phase two are completed, we will have an annual capacity of 60,000 tons per year and our 3Q lithium project has resources of 8.3 million tons of and phase one is expected to be commissioned in Q3 2024. Q2 is progressing well and our project in Hunan province is also well underway. We will continue to optimize our brine extraction process in order to reduce costs and the Hunan lithium project has resources of 830,000 tons of LCE and mining and processing project and also the lithium carbonate smelter is also well underway and it's slated for commissioning by the end of Q3 2025. After ramp up you will be able to produce 30,000 tons of LCE per year. And as for Manono lithium mine, currently our progress are better than expected.
According to the job reports, we have 2.6 million tons of lithium there and the first SAT power generator at the Mapiana Mwanga Hydropower Plant has been launched successfully. The third part is our strategic plan. We plan to produce 1.15 million tons of copper in 2025, 85 tons of gold in 2025, 570,000 tons of zinc, zinc and lead and also s ilver, we plan for 600 to 700 tons. LCE 250,000 tons- 300,000 tons. To achieve our strategic goal, the company in 2025 will adopt the following measures. First, we will outperform our phase two strategic goal to improve quality control costs and boost profitability. We will proceed with M&A resource scans and construction in order to build a solid foundation. We will also address our main challenge and improve our management capacity in order to ensure steady and long term development.
We will also continue to improve our ESG system in order to lay a solid foundation. And as if our investors want to know more about our annual reports, it is also welcome you to look for more information. Dear investors, just now Mr. Wu talk about our financial performance in 2024 as a key player in the global mining industry. Zijin Mining is committed to mining for a better society and to achieve shared value for all. We have embedded ESG principles into everything we do. Now let's give the floor to Mr. Xie Xiongh ui, Vice President of the company. He will talk about our ESG performance in 2024. Dear investors, shareholders and friends, Good morning.
Now I will talk about our 2024 sustainable gross performance. So ESG indicators apart from following internationally recognized standards so we improve our transparency significantly by releasing data on 305 indicators up 10.9% year on year so it has been on the rising trend starting from 2021. We hope that through this kind of disclosure we can make available to all investors more about our non- financial performance. These will also serve as a good foundation for our growth so we will benchmark against the Shanghai Stock Exchange Sustainability Reporting Guidelines and we have also conducted analysis and we know that safe production has a high financial relevance. In terms of climate change response, we are proud to tell everyone that we deliver our 2025 target in advance.
So this year compared to the last year, our carbon emission intensity has down significantly and based on compared to 2025 it's down by 35%. And the absolute volume of our carbon emission has also been decreasing and installed capacity of clean energy has been on constantly growing trend. Compared to last year we increased by 80% and in last year up to now, we already have 865 electric vehicles accounting for over 1/3 of our total volume. In terms of environmental protection, this has always been our brand apart from mining while reclaiming and we also pay great attention to fresh water consumption intensity utilization of waste we have achieved growth in all these indicators. For example, our consumption intensity has decreased slightly compared to last year and the water recycling waste has also been increased. The utilization rate of general waste has reached 15%.
Apart from this, we also released our first biodiversity protection guideline. This is the very first in the industry to guide our work. In terms of vocational health and safety, t his is a top priority for us. We have recognized its importance to a company's growth. Through our efforts, we have been managed to show up our weaknesses. Last year we paid great efforts to identify risk, manage risk and mitigate risk. So in the smelting sector we managed to achieve zero severe injury. And last year we have 60,000 participants involved in our safety training. Through this kind of effort, we have been able to improve our safety performance all around. But ultimately we will continue to address the root cause and require systematic efforts. We will continue to improve our systematic behaviors and habits to frame this kind of safety environment.
Last year we also worked with the international OS agency to provide healthy health guarantee for our employees. Employees are the most essential foundation for a company. So we have made great efforts to address the shortage of internationally competent talents. And so now we have 56,000 employees across the world and local employee reached about 96%. After our one year efforts, the local employee level and also capacity competence have been improved comprehensively. In terms of community development, this is also a priority for us. We hope that we can benefit the communities with our own presence. Through our efforts, we will be able to help all communities that we we work with can achieve shared development and sustainable development in the future. Last year we addressed 357 complaints filed by the communities and we also received about 20,000 community visitors.
We also have widespread extensive communication with stakeholders launched many projects that is conducive to the long term development of communities. Through this kind of effort, we have been able to develop a mutually trust relations with our host communities. We invested about RMB 812 million in community development. In terms of business ethics, last year we launched a targeted campaign on anti- corruption in trading, procurement and also sensitive areas. So with this campaign we managed to improve our business environment. For example, in the procurement sector, we managed to reduce cost by RMB 1.5 billion. And we also have other contributing factors. We have also stepped up punishment of relevant employees. We have transferred them to relevant government agencies and if we identify any risk related to our suppliers, we will impose restrictive measures.
As for risk management, we have paid great attention to this. Last year we also had a strategic meeting to identify our internal risks and put forward targeted measures and plans. As for bill related to Xinjiang, I think this is not a human rights issue. And after our long term internal review, we believe that the company do not involve in any illegal or improper behavior accused by the United States. So in the following in the next step, we will continue to improve ourselves and we will request the United States government to give us relevant evidence in order to remove our company from the entity list. And in the future, we know that there are still uncertainties in the world, but we will continue to remain true to our mission. We will continue to seek shared development and green development.
We will use our own efforts to contribute to the society and mind for a better society. So this is all for my presentation. If you have questions, we are very open to it. Just now, the management brief investors on our work done in 2024, including our operational and ESG performance so now we will move to the second part of the event, the Q& A session with our investors. Please ensure incoming calls are properly connected. Dear investors, we have attached great importance to collecting and responding to investor feedback. Before this event, we received many questions in our investor relations email. So we will first address two recurring questions. So the first question is that in recent years, we have seen Zijin Mining been quite active in the capital markets. Last year, the company issued convertible debts in the edge share markets.
Recently, you announced plans to take a controlling stake in Zangge Mining and made strategic investment in [Longking] shares. You also control or part owned companies in the new energy sector and also upstream and downstream industries. So could you please talk about your strategic considerations? Now, let's give the floor to Mr. Chen Jinghe. Dear investors and friends, very happy to have this opportunity to communicate with you. The mining industry is the time honored industry. In the past several years, through M&A and resource exploration, we have managed to expand our resource base significantly. So if we just rely on our existing resources, we will run out of them one day. So we need to increase our resources through various channels. For example, construction and M&A in order to achieve sustainable growth for companies. Zijin Mining has a very aspirational goal.
Under the guidance of such goal and targets, at the right time, we will conduct certain M&A.
Of course, in the past, to a large extent, the headquarters has been buying projects with cash in China and abroad. In the past few years, by getting controlling stakes in listed companies or becoming a minority shareholder of some companies. These are very new and good developments. As has been mentioned, last year, we also became a controlling shareholder of another company which proved very effective. And we are also considering a target worth more than RMB 14 billion. We became a controlling shareholder for [Longking] and a shareholder of Wanguo Mining. These moves represent new models and measures in the capital market for us. We are keenly aware that we grew from a small county government-owned company to what we are today, a leading global mining company globally, The capital market played a significant role in our growth and improvement in our governance.
It's been very helpful for us. Of course, when choosing these targets, we are very careful. We don't do acquisition for the sake of acquisition. First, the business they're in should be closely linked to us so as to achieve synergy. That is the basic requirement. In the future, we will continue to explore new models on this front in the Asia market within China, if you want to issue additional shares, it's difficult. Outside of China for instance, outside of the Mainland China in Hong Kong, there is a market based approach for share placements and other issuance. So in the future, we'll continue to leverage the capital market to grow our business. This will help us to rapidly achieve our development target. Thank you. Thank you, Chairman Chen Jinghe . The second recurring question is this. Zijin released a new Five year Plan outlining clear production and strategic goals.
2025 marks the end of the second phase of development for Zijin. Could the president share the key priorities of the company for 2025? Just now, CFO Wu Jianhui has talked about this topic. I would provide more details. In 2025, we will continue to follow our new Five year Plan, pursue high quality development and focus on cost control to maximize socioeconomic benefits and improve our global competitiveness. First, we'll focus on quality, cost and profitability which is our overarching principle. We want to outperform our phase two strategic targets. We want to unlock potential from existing projects and achieve incremental growth as well. We want to outperform the target of 1.15 million tons of copper, 85 tons of gold, 440,000 tons of zinc, 40,000 tons of lithium carbonate, 450 tons of silver and 10,000 tons of mined molybdenum.
We will also leverage AI and other capabilities and improve our global operations management system and improve our budgeting system and unlock synergy from our trading and logistics business. Second, we will continue to expand our resources. We will advance the project construction in Jul ong Phase 2 Julong Copper Mine, [Zijinshan] Copper Mine, Tongshan Copper Mine, Heilongjiang Molybdenum and Copper Mine, Jinzhai Molybdenum Mine. Outside of China will advance projects such as [Yama] Copper Mine and Cukaru Peki's lower zone for the [use of block caving in the MG Mine], the La Arena Gold Mine, the Kamoa Copper Mine and smelter. We will also accelerate the transaction close of Akyem in Ghana and debottlenec king afterwards. We will also take an orderly approach to our lithium projects and also further improve synergy between [Tsangu] Mining and Jul ong Copper. Third, we will strengthen the compliance compliance to achieve harmonious development.
We will improve biodiversity management and biological restoration will also develop a diverse labor relations and build genuine [specific] labor unions, will value harmonious ties with communities and respect and protect the interests of our stakeholders so as to benefit more people through our operations. Thank you, President Zou. Now we'll take questions from investors to save time. Please keep your questions direct and concise as much as possible. Please limit your questions to no more than two per person. Please an operator announce the question. Please press star and one on your phone now. The investor with a phone number ending 2176 please identify your name and affiliation first. Hello, can you hear me? Yes, Chairman Chen and directors. I'm an [independent] and I had discussions with the management. In- depth d iscussions indeed. Today I want to ask a question to Independent Director Li.
Director Li, you are an independent director of the company and a member of the Audit and Internal Control. You are the head of the committee. How do you participate in the company's decision making and supervision activities? How would you comment on the company's performance in 2024 regarding internal control and financial results? Thank you, investors and friends. Good morning. In the end of 2019, I became independent director of Zijin M ining. So it's been five years since. I'm delighted to notice that over the past five years, the Demining continues to grow in terms of operations, governance, internal control and risk management. It is becoming a global company on those fronts and have made big strides. As an Independent Director and the head of the Audit and Internal Control Committee. I would like to answer the two questions that you raised.
First, how we fulfill our responsibilities in supervision and decision making. Second, the assessment for internal control and financial performance. First, in terms of participation in decision making and supervision on a daily basis, we have three channels. First, we take part in the board meeting. Second, site visits and third, day to day communications. In terms of participation in meetings, last year we held one shareholders meeting, 20 board meeting, six committee meetings for the Audit and Internal Control Committee. The members of the Internal Control Committee and independent directors attended all those meetings. We took a objective independently also have four closed meetings for independent directors. First, with the internal audit department and the auditors. Second, the independent directors also meet with the Chairman and the President.
Through these four closed meetings, we can better understand the internal operations of the companies and engage in candid discussions with the management and external auditors to identify potential issues and provide targeted suggestions to supervise the company's activities. In addition, we also make site visits. Zijin has many projects in 16 foreign countries and 17 provincial level regions in China. How can we have a more direct, independent and in depth understanding of these projects? We've been thinking about this question. Desktop research is not enough, so we need to engage in field trips. During the reporting period, the independent directors and non executive directors have made site visits for 176 days and with per capita visit days reaching 29 days, I personally reached 32 days. In April last year, we visited Zijin's South America projects with a focus on strategy implementation and post investment assessment.
In August, we also made site visits to key projects in Xinjiang with a focus on eco friendly mining and how to build a cluster for eco friendly mining. During the reporting period, we also visited the segments of the company including trading, logistics, finance, capital and integrated business and finance systems. On a daily basis, independent directors engage in close and smooth communication with other directors and Board secretary and the cfo before important matters are submitted to board for decision making. We can get notification in advance and ask questions, and we can require thematic briefings and explanations from the directors and executives to ensure that we have the right to be informed and improve the rationality of decision making.
Second, assessment of Internal control and risk management. In terms of internal control during the reporting period, I have been strengthening the tracking of internal control development and reviewed the company's internal control assessment report and internal control report issued by the accounting firm. I did not identify any major defects w ith internal control of the company. The Board, the Committee of Supervisors and Management has good separation of powers in terms of decision making, supervision and execution. The company also has a five prompt supervision mechanism. Through these two mechanisms, this can ensure good internal control and risk management for the company. In terms of finance, I myself majored in finance and have been studying finance over the past few years. During the internal control meetings on, we emphasized the robustness of the finances of the company, requiring higher attention for debt structure and cash flow.
Over the past few years, the economy hit new record in terms of operational performance and profits. Significantly, the company's debt ratio last year dropped from 59% to 55%. You also have made improvements in terms of average financing costs, current ratio, quick ratio and interest coverage ratio. This shows that the company has been prudent in risk management and has increased its financial resilience. So overall, I'm pretty optimistic about the company's future prospects and financial resilience. Thank you. Thank you very much to the head of our Internal Control Committee, Mr. Li Changqing. Next question. Investor with that phone number ending 8065, please identify your name and affiliation first. I am [analyst Qi from CICC]. Congratulations for hitting new records. In terms of performance, I would like to ask a question about costs.
We have noticed that in 2024 you have made impressive results in cost control, not only in production costs. Your financial expenses have also dropped by 240 million. CFO Wu Jianhui , what are your prospects for for costs and expenses in 2025? If you look for longer term, in the next two to three years, what are the trends for the changes of costs and expenses? Thank you, Mr. Qi, for your question. In 2024, we have made good progress in cost management. The key lies in our achievement in curbing rising costs in our overseas projects. Internally, our overseas mines, apart from gold projects which remained the same in terms of cost, other mined products saw decreases in cost. You also mentioned a drop in finance expenses, and that was attributable to an improvement in our debt structure and the lower financing costs.
Last year in the H-shareC, we issued 500 million worth of convertible bonds and also additional shares. This helps to reduce finance costs. What are the trends for 2025 and next two to three years?
In 2025, we still face great pressure in terms of cost controls. We are facing degrading ore grade. For example, Serbia, Zijin Mining, Continental Gold and [Northern] gold fields all have these problems. And we also have some rigid cost rising factors. For example, the transportation distance of open pit mining is increasing and underground mining as well. And also for some of our products, the production increase mainly comes from underground mining and some open pit mining. The stripping ratio is also increasing. And we are also seeing increasing depreciation volume. And labor cost is also increasing at our overseas operations because it involves different factors. So this is also a very clear rising chance.
But despite all these negative factors, we believe that we are still quite confident that under the leadership of Chairman Chen Jinghe, we will be able to maintain or keep our cost competitiveness in the industry. So, in 2025, we will continue to pursue cost optimization, and we will make cost control a top priority of our management. We will prioritize investments for projects with quick returns and strictly control ineffective investments. Internally. We will also step up technological and managerial innovation to unleash our internal potential. And we will use digital and smart technologies to improve efficiency and control costs. So in two to three years, we also done some calculation. We will have a management fee of about RMB [47.5] billion.
And if we take our newly acquired project into consideration, we will be able to control it at a level of 7.9, which is level with our original level. And last year, thanks to the refinancing in H-share, and we also adopt a number of cost control measures, we still managed to maintain a very good performance in cost control. Thank you. Thank you. Mr. Wu, just now, you also mentioned that our overseas operations have performed quite well in cost control. So I would also like to ask Mr. Zou, could you please elaborate on measures we have taken in overseas cost control. Thank you for your questions. You have asked a really good question. In 2024, we actually stepped up the management of our overseas operations comprehensively. We set up an overseas operations management committee.
We also relocated the management department to Serbia in order to move our management closer to operations. And we also took a number of measures to control costs. So first, we pursue innovation. We use new equipment, so we systematically improve our oil throughputs and recovery rates. We also managed to reduce our production cost comprehensively. Meanwhile, we also targeted our water and energy consumption. We took some measures as well and achieved significant reduction. And during the pandemic period, we had some legacy issues. For example, due to some labor force shortage, we had very high costs during that time. So this year we conduct renegotiation to lower our outsourcing costs to bring it back to a reasonable level. And secondly, we also take measures in terms of supply chain. So we have operations in five continents. And what we do is that we build a comprehensive [our] cost.
And we have two concrete measures. For example, we use open price negotiation to buy some frequently used equipment, which also help us to reduce procurement costs. And we also take measures to control investment in construction. We set up an overseas cost settlement center. It is responsible for managing our prices and expenses early in the process overseas. And we, through this settlement center, we had put forward some feasible plans which is quite helpful for us to improve our construction investment management. So we have managed to involve our management in overseas construction investments early in the process. And we also continue to optimize our designs and engineering. So basically, we have formed a very conducive cycle for cost control. And we also have this kind of food chain cost control measures. We also look into some abnormal prices in our contracts.
Through this kind of management, we identify problems and lower them. Fourth, we step up our performance assessments regarding cost control. We set clear targets and we also break them down into specific topics. For major operations, we also customize plans for their cost control. We also introduce a sharing system in order to share our best cost control practices among our operations. We will be able to improve our performance on all fronts. We also introduce a reward and penalty system to ensure accountability and improve our cost control results. Basically, these effective measures will be continued to roll out across our entire group in order to further improve our cost control performance. Thank you. Thank the analysts for your questions. I believe you are also very interested about our costs.
Our costs mainly remain flat over the past two years and we even see some reduction last year. But actually, across the world many mining companies have experienced rising costs last year so we can see that Zijin M ining has done remarkable in this respect and Mr. Zou has also talked about how to control cost from four aspects. Next, let's invite next investor to raise questions. Now let's invite phone number ended 5853 to raise your question, please identify your name and affiliation first thank you. Good morning. I am from Mingsheng Securities My name is [Zhang Yiqing] so first, congratulations on Zijin Mining's record performance and also congratulations for your number four ranking in the world. These points, how will the company think about its investment and acquisition strategy? And how do you decide on the type of project and locations?
I suggest Mr. Chen Jing he to answer this question. I did not catch the question quite clear. Could Mr. Zhang please say your question again? Yes. Gold and copper prices are high but now we are seeing increasing uncertainties so my question is about the company's future M&A and investment strategy in the future as well as your preference on the types of project and locations. Okay, I'm very happy to take this question. Now different metals are seeing rising prices but even with such a condition, there are still some cost effective projects available in the markets.
For example, last year we acquired a gold copper mine in Peru. The mine has 3 million copper resources and 200 tons of gold resources. We spent only RMB 300 million so this is actually very cost effective but its grade is relatively low and Peru also has a relatively complicated process for permitting. So what I want to say is that even with such high prices, there are still some good offers available. So for a company, if it does not have any increase, then it won't be able for the company to achieve growth. So we will definitely continue with our M&A strategy. Zijin has this feature which is that we won't go for very expensive project, we won't bet on just one project at all costs.
For example, when we decided to enter the lithium market that time, lithium prices have been quite high but we still evaluate projects at the cost of 100,000 per ton. So this is our benchmark price internally. Basically it means that we will still remain prudent in our investment strategy so we have some considerations. For example, in terms of the selection of minerals we will go with, go for minerals that is of optimistic in the future. In recent years, we prioritize copper because it's critical to renewable energy and also artificial intelligence. The application of AI also consumes a lot of electricity and geopolitical factors are having greater impact. Almost all central banks across the world are printing money, so money is cheap. And that is why we are seeing rising gold prices.
So gold is a very important target for us in our future M&A activities. Even there are some extreme scenarios, gold will be able to have even higher prices. I think amid such a uncertain situation, gold is the best choice for us. As for lithium, I already have 20 million lithium resources, but it's still important. Lithium is also very important. If we will be able to develop those resources, we'll be among the largest lithium producers in the world. So we will continue to improve our production capacity. And we are also interested in silver. Now we have about 400 tons investment opportunities. We are also quite interested in terms of the selection of location. So we will remain committed to global business growth. We have different minerals. So for different minerals, minerals we will have different preference when it comes to location.
For example, gold, it does not involve transportation or sales issue. So though South America is far away, but there are still plenty of opportunities for gold. As for copper, many projects are developing rapidly. So five years ago I said that taking geopolitical factors and other factors into consideration, we need to step up our investment in China and neighboring countries. And the most important mineral for this is copper. Because if we do it in our neighboring country, it won't be affected by geopolitical impacts so badly. And that is why we choose this. As for investment projects, what kind of project we will invest in.
We paid close attention to producing projects. In terms of M&A producing projects, if bought, can deliver profits. I mean, such high prices, how can you get good projects at reasonable prices? That's what we are good at. When we look at all those projects, we would check the model from the seller. Based on their models, it might be expensive. We want to see if there any room for improvement. For instance, if there is potential for resource growth and if we can reduce its costs after we take over the project. Even for the gold mine in Ghana, where transaction has not been completed, they have about 100 tons of gold resources. If we can reduce the ore grades, then the resource will reach 300 tons. So we value the resource potential of those projects.
We need to analyze each project on a case by case basis. In some jurisdictions, where investment environment is not so good, assets are cheap. In other jurisdictions, assets might be expensive. So we need to balance those factors. Currently the geopolitical factors are having a bigger impact. And resource nationalism are also rising. So overseas risks are increasing. But we believe that our core value or our culture is to pursue development for all the governments take various measures but when we develop different projects, we should drive local development as our responsibility. This will help us gain recognition from all sectors of society. Locally, that's an important, the most important measure for us to address risks. Second, compliance. When investing overseas, we operate in compliance with laws and regulations. That's also an important measure. Political regimes always change.
If our projects could benefit local, economic, and social development and create jobs, we can be good friends with locals instead of having negative relations than and we will gain good recognition. Over the past few years, we have had such experience overseas. In terms of ESG and other areas, w e pursued the highest standards in environmental protection standards. For Western companies. they have mine restoration plans post mine development. But beginning in mine construction, we launched mine restoration activity activities by spending some money. So that makes us stand out. During mine development, there is water and air pollution. We have live monitoring of those exhausts and discharges, preventing smearing activities by others. So when we do a good job on those fronts, even if there are challenges, we believe we will be able to manage those. So that's my answer.
Since last year, during our work conference, in the last sentence of our work report, we mentioned risk management. We are a large company, so risk management is a strategic consideration for us. In the future, we will not achieve a certain goal at the expense of other things. So risk management is important for us. Thank you. Thank you, Chairman Chen for answering that question. Chairman Chen, talking about the minerals for acquisition investment jurisdictions and the compliance activities and environmental protection standards which are key measures for us to prevent and address risks. These are also our strategies. Next question, please. The next question. Investor with a phone number ending 78177. Please identify your name and affiliation first. Thank you, Chairman Chen and President Zou. I am Chief Analyst Xiaoyong with Changjiang Securities. I have a question about lithium carbonate. Lithium carbonate market is in a downturn.
The market situation in recent years, r ecent periods showed that it has hit a bottom already in terms of prices. You have cut your production guidance for 2025 from 120,000 tons to 40,000 tons. Under current conditions, what are your prospects in terms of your strategy in the lithium sector? And could you also update us on the progress and cost of various lithium projects? And what are your outlook for the lithium carbonate market? I would like to ask President Zou to answer the question and I would add to that later. Thank you for the question. We have expanded into the lithium business. That is a strategic decision. Adjusting production guidance does not mean a major adjustment to our strategy or even exiting from the sector.
So we remain committed to medium we adjusted the guidance based on market conditions as well as project approval conditions. We also aim to further cement our foundation and improve our costs and technology. There are different lithium extraction technologies for different projects in particular for [pinbride] projects. So we want to improve their technology and review their processes. Currently, the 3Q project in Argentina, the 20,000 ton project they are now improving their processes and it will be put into production in Q3. The Lakkor Tso project in Xizangn, the 20,000 town LCE project has been put into production. It has got approvals from the government. These two projects are advancing their phase two projects. After completion of those two projects, their costs at both projects will drop significantly which will benefit our operations under current market conditions.
In the [Xiangyuan] lithium project, their smelter is also advancing in terms of construction. In the beginning of Q3, it will be put into production. The Manono Lithium project It's a massive project in terms of resources we are advancing the development of the project and at DRC there's been challenges in terms of local situation but we have not stopped construction at the project. We are still advancing project construction at Manono and the hydropower plant has already been put into operation addressing power needs for the project and we'll also increase investments in power. We aim to achieve initial results in our medium projects this year and contribute some profits. We want to generate significant results within three years after all projects achieve design capacity we expect good financial returns through further improvement and debottlenec king.
Comprehensive LCE costs in Lakkor Tso project will be within RMB 50,000 per ton. 3Q 75,000 tons [Xiangyuan] Lithium within 60,000 tons no, no, between 50,000 to 60,000 tons per ton so based on current prices, our lithium segment will generate good profits. In terms of prices we are seeing electrification and development of AI. In the future, the demand for lithium will be significant and we expect lithium demand to top 3 million tons by price increases of lithium and we are also investing in, there's also projects for raw materials for lithium batteries that are ongoing so in the future we'll also expand in our lithium project and diversify our lithium projects. We are fully confident in the future we will make contributions in terms of from the lithium segment.
Thank you, President Zou for the answer the next question, The investor with the phone number ending 6545, please identify your name and affiliation first. Please go ahead. Thank you management, Joy from Goldman Sachs. Congratulations for another year of strong revenue growth. I have a question about your copper and gold business. There's been limited exploration discoveries globally. In 2024, you have made fruitful results in resource expansion theory exploration. Could you elaborate on the main achievements and your priorities and plans for future resource expansion. Thank you. Let me answer this question. Last year. Well, in recent years we have achieved significant results through exploration. I, myself a geologist by training, I place a lot of emphasis on resources and independent exploration. Brownfield exploration involves low costs and good results. We have a lot of resources. One and half of those was secured through brownfield exploration.
At our existing projects. Last year we had major achievements. First in [Julong], copper mining in [Xihan]. Existing resource was 12 million tons of copper. Through studies, we reduced cut-off grade and redefined the resources. The registered resources reached 25 million tons. It added a new copper ore body. It also added 1 million tons of molybdenum and 20,000 tons of silver. It's a massive resource. The 25 million tons of resources, of those after phase three is approved, most of those can be converted into reserves. That's the economic and bioeconomic viability assessment, which transformed unviable resources into viable ones into resources. If phase three can be built, annual throughput will reach 200 million tons. Among global metals mining projects, it will be the largest with the lowest grade and highest elevation. It's a very profitable project.
Last year, the feed grade was 0.3 to 0.4. It made a net attributable profit of RMB 7 billion. If you can imagine further expansion from that project, it will be very significant. Within China, near the Duob aoshan Copper Mine, there's a mine called Tongshan Mine. At the depth of 1,000 meters to 2,000 meters, we discovered 33 million tons of copper grade. 0.5% is viable if developed through block caving. That's the second result. Overseas in terms of copper. In Serbia, along the Timok Mineralization Belt, under 1,500 meters, we discovered 3 million tons of copper. In terms of copper equivalent, it would be 5 million tons. And the ore body is not closed yet. Exploration is also ongoing. So there's significant value from this new discovery. We also have other exploration discoveries. For instance, the lithium project in the DRC, which also has huge resource space.
In terms of independent exploration, we have made a lot of contributions for growth on this front. In the future, when it comes to exploration, we will increase our efforts on this front, both within China and overseas. In 2025, we expect good results as well. China launched a exploration strategic move, so copper prices are high and the miniature natural resources were very happy with our discoveries.
So we will continue to step up our efforts in this regard. Okay, thank you. Thank you Mr. Chen for your response. Zijin Mining has paid great attention to geological exploration. Geological resources is our core assets. So we now have over 100 million tons of copper resources, 4,000 tons of gold resources and about 20 million tons of lithium resources. So our resource base has been growing rapidly. Now please invite the next investors to raise questions. Now let's invite investor with phone number ended in 5789 to raise question. Please identify your name and affiliation first. Thank you. I am from JPM organ. My name is [Xu Xiaojun]. Just now, according based on your introduction, I want to ask a question about safety. Safety is a very important topic for the mining industry.
So for Zijian, such an international large company, we want to know that what Zijin has done in terms of safety performance. Could you please elaborate on this? I will take this question. So first, thank you. Thank our investors from JP Morgan or Morgan Stanley for your support and care. Safety has been our top priority for years. And we have also realized that safety is of great significance for a company. And through our analysis, we realized that safety performance has high relevance to our other performance. So last year we have adopted a number of measures and we discovered that benchmark against internationally leading companies. Safety is still a short weakness for us. And last year we have done a lot and it has been recognized by our management as well. But internationally, we are still lagging behind. There is still a gap.
So basically, we have done three things. First, we seek systematic improvement. Second, we seek capability building. In terms of systematic improvements, we do three things. First, we raise the awareness of all employees. Last year, the company had a lot of meetings and made plans. And it has raised significant awareness significantly among our employees. And we also invite professional teams to help us identify risk and help us to mitigate those risks. And we also emphasize that safe production is a very complicated issue. So we focus on key points. For example, in terms of improvements, transportation is a big issue. So this year the group level will launch a campaign targeted on this. And secondly, about capacity building. We have done a lot in terms of awareness improvement. This has improved a lot.
If people can pay attention to it, we will be able to have a good performance. And we also focus on safety skill improvements. Last year, we conduct 60,000 times per person of training for safety training. And we have seen improvement in the safety skills of our employees. We have also a huge team of constructive constructor employees. So there is still a lot for us to do in this regard, especially about our training. We need to do some systematic efforts and many operations are now turning to self operation. Many safety accidents actually happen with contractors.
So after in house operation I believe we will also see improvement in this regard and we will also continue to introduce advanced technologies and equipment and we have also looked into equipment for mining at [Thin Ore Body] and we will also continue to choose safer processes and technology to improve our safety performance. We will also adopt artificial intelligence to to form safe habits for all employees in order to address the root cause of safety issue. So this is basically about our safety work. Thank you. Thank you Mr. Xie for your answer. Now let's invite the next investor. Now let's invite investor with phone number entered in 7607 to raise question Please identify your name and affiliation first. Thank you. Good morning. I am from Hua Thai Securities. I'm Li Bin. Thank you for giving me this opportunity.
Recently we had done an in depth report about the company and we are quite impressed about the company's execution capability and your long term plan. We believe that the company will be able to be among top three in terms of gold and resources, gold and copper globally in the future. But we have seen that in your annual report you have talked a lot about artificial intelligence. So could you please talk about AI's impact on the entire industry's development and also for your company's development for example, in terms of your automation and the application of smart technologies, what help will be provided by artificial intelligence? Could Mr. Chen answer this? So from the perspective of our management system, I believe that the Zijin Mining in the future, all production and operational activities should be carried out on digital platform.
So far we are doing quite well in all regard but there is still gap between my expectation, especially overseas operations because after the acquisition, the integration of these projects still takes time. We need to integrate them into all our systems and processes. So first we need to get data done. This is very important. So we require all our management members without systems, you won't be able to manage an operation. That means you are a successful management member and in terms of AI, if you have a good data system and you can use artificial intelligence to train to conduct standard management and then you will have this kind of search self improvement capabilities and it's actually if we will be able to embed AI into our management process, we will see great improvement in our performance.
We have done, we have made plans, we plan to step up investments in AI and I believe that if we can pay sustained efforts in three to five years' time, we will see fundamental changes and transformation in our management system and capability. We have been emphasizing that we need to build our own team and our own capabilities. We will also collaborate with external agencies to do this. This will definitely be a top priority for us in the future. In terms of our production and operational management, it will also have a great impact on our improvement in this regard. We hope that Zijin will be not only good in mining and relevant technologies, we also hope that Zijin can have an advantage in terms of our information system and artificial intelligence. We will continue to put great effort into it.
Thank you. Thank you, Chairman Chen Jinghe for your answer. Due to the time constraints, we will take one last question. Now let's invite investor with phone number entered in 6289 to take question. Please identify your name and affiliation first. Thank you. I am from Shenw an Hongyuan securities. My name is [Kojong] Hui. My question is mainly about market cap management. The company in recent years has presented great potential and you have invested a lot in this regard. And there are still great room in the future. And also great potential. We have been seeing in terms of resource growth last year. In the past several years, the share contributed by gold production has increasing rapidly. Thirdly, you also talk about cost control as well. Just now, so recently the company released its market cap management regulation.
So my question is about your main targets and measures for market cap management. I will take this question in terms of market cap management. Actually investors, actually national government also talk about this. It emphasize improving returns for investors and made specific requirements for companies. So the Securities Supervision Committee and Securities Exchange has also emphasized this. So for Zijin Mining, what we need to do is to improve returns for our shareholders. This is what we need to think about. That is why last week we released our market cap management regulation and this is actually what the management team should do. In the future, we will continue to focus on our shareholder and investor return and what measures we will take. So first, our company will remain committed to its manned mining business. We'll continue to focus on copper, gold and relevant core minerals.
We will continue to focus on key areas, mainly reverse. For example, for assets that do not have much value will be handled will be dealt with. In the later stage, we will focus M&A opportunities to pursue merger and acquisition in order to improve our mineral production and profit profits. And also a very important thing in our management system is that it's about the adjustments of the compensation for our management members. In the future, we will go with more options and also we will pursue employee shareholding program in order to tie the interest of the company with our employees and also tie the compensation of management members with our share value. This will be able to achieve share growth among the company and our investors as well. And at our recent board meeting we reviewed our 2024 annual reports.
In 2024 we paid RMB 10 billion in shareholder dividend. So in 2024 the volume exceeded RMB 10 billion and it actually accounts for over 30% in our net attributable profit over the past two years. So in the future we will continue to look into our debt scale and also our operational performance and then we will gradually expand the ratio, increase the ratio of dividend in order to encourage more investors to invest in us in long term sense and also give them the return they deserve. I want to add a few points. Currently Zijing is not doing quite well in terms of market value management. We are very, we are a high potential company but we are not doing quite well.
For example Freeport and Southern Copper, compared to them we are definitely good but our market value is quite low compared to them and compared to domestic gold mining company, our gold is not sold at a very good price. So our market value management is not doing quite well and in the future we will pay more attention to it. In the future the compensation or bonus for our management member will be reduced. We are confident that the company's market cap will be identified and discovered and recognized by the capital markets.
Thank you Chairman for those comments. The investors pay close attention to this and as the Board Secretary, I will also find ways to have closer communication with the investors and improve our investor relation activities. We will have more communications and interactions with investors in Shanghai and our headquarters and in Hong Kong, we have IR teams. In the future we will spend more time and energy for IR share of the total and as you can see, our information disclosure has been adequate. We have websites in Chinese, English, French and Spanish. Different types of investors can access relevant information they require. During today's results and presentation, we will also afterwards publish the PowerPoint slides to enable information access. We hope that in the future we can provide more information for the investors enabling them to assess the value of our company.
As Chairman Chen pointed out, our net PE is about [14]. If you look globally, the average PE of global mining companies is about 40 both for copper and gold companies. Last year our ROE was 26%. In the past five years, our net attributable profit saw a compound annual growth rate of more than 50% over the past five years and our copper output over the past five years, the CAGR was 20%. Gold CAGR was 25%. In the future, based on 2020 year end levels from 2024 to 2025, our gold and the copper output will also see a 50% growth. If you look at our company, people believe that mining is a cyclical industry. However, we are a high growth company. In the next few years, we will see rapid growth as well.
We hope that the investors can take an objective approach in assessing our company. We are delighted to notice that by closing in the morning in Hong Kong and Shanghai stock exchanges, we saw about 4% growth in share prices. In Shanghai, it is 3.7%. In Hong Kong, it is 4.5%. It is a good result. Thank you very much for your attention. The management is delighted to meet the needs for communication with the investors. We are willing to share the development results of our company. In the interest of time, we have many investors still with questions. We have also answered some of those questions online. This concludes the live Q& A session. For further questions, please reach out to us at the online interactive platforms, analysts and investors.
The year 2025 is a pivotal year for Zijin's global expansion and also the year to achieve the goal for the second phase of our development. We have made it very clear, as has been mentioned by our Chairman, we will focus on improving quality, controlling costs and boosting profitability, which is a core task for activities in the recent years. We will also leverage reform innovation, tailored systems and risk control to deliver results. We will also develop a global operations system while properly managing risk. In the future we will spend more efforts on building a lean structure, the efficient global efficiency management system. We will focus even more on improving our comparative advantages globally in terms of cost control and will work even harder on unlocking incremental projects. 2025 is also a year of relatively turbulent developments in the world and the mining market.
Facing the challenges of global supply chain restructuring and market volatility, we at Zijin will maintain strategic focus and take the initiative to seize opportunities while strengthening risk management. We are determined to meet and even beat our production guidance, creating enduring value for investors and lasting benefits for society. Thank you to the investors for your time. This concludes today's live stream. Chairman, would you like to ask something? No. Thank you so much. This concludes our results announcements. Thank you all. .