——The end of one-way thinking and linear movement

Entrepreneurial philosophy: treat Zijin’s affairs as your own family affairs—from hole mining to open mining, reverse behavior The beginning of the industry - the spiral expansion model: the end of one-way thinking and linear movement - the rise of Zijin Mining

In the memory of many people, the 1990s was an era of burning passion. An era of constant exploration is an era full of creativity and vitality. Especially after Comrade Deng Xiaoping's speech during his southern tour in 1992, the spring tide surged in China, setting off the second wave of reform and opening up, with real estate fever, stock fever, and fund-raising fever... China and China once again entered the express train of economic development. road.

Since the founding of the People's Republic of China, especially over the past 20 years of reform and opening up, my country's gold industry has made world-renowned achievements. The entire industry has developed from a few mines in the early days of the founding of the People's Republic of China into a fully functional and complete gold industry. , independent gold industry system. China has entered the forefront of the world's major gold-producing countries.

However, because it has been under the planned economic system for a long time, and since the late 1950s, the country has adopted a series of special preferential policies for the gold industry, which has made my country's gold industry form its own system. At the same time, it has also formed a relatively closed development model. Compared with other industries, the gold industry has been isolated from the international market for a longer period of time, and it is still not fully integrated with the international market. In particular, my country's gold companies generally have set up a series of administrative agencies and a large number of managers. The phenomenon of corporate socialization is serious, forming a huge, non-productive service network. This social management function creates a huge additional burden on the production and operation of gold companies. At the same time, a large amount of funds that can be invested in production are used for social development, which also increases the unit cost of gold production and weakens the vitality of enterprises to participate in competition. In terms of distribution mechanism, this big pot-style "distribution on demand" weakens the dynamic factors in the reward mechanism and is not conducive to the establishment of an effective internal incentive mechanism for enterprises.

In the past 10 years in the 1980s, under the guidance of the policies of "water flows quickly" and "the country, collectives and individuals work together", the intensity of mining of national gold resources increased sharply. This makes gold, a special commodity that has been exclusively purchased under unified purchasing since ancient times, become a free market in production and construction. As a result, individual mines surround collective and state-owned mines, and even encroach on state-owned mines; some individual companies mine illegally and cross-border mining, which poses a great threat to the production of state-owned gold companies and the life safety of employees; the competition for resources arises Various vicious incidents also occurred frequently.

Due to the lack of awareness of sustainable development, gold companies have caused serious pollution and damage to the natural environment and ecological environment during the mining, dressing, smelting and other production processes; the company's implementation of "abandoning poverty and mining for wealth" The mining strategy has also resulted in a serious waste of resources. The destruction of the natural environment and ecological environment, in turn, affects the production of gold enterprises and the living and living environment of employees. The waste of resources makes the development of mines unsustainable, the life cycle of enterprises is shortened, the employment situation of employees is severe, and the surplus of enterprises continues to increase. . In addition, in recent years, due to the continued downturn in international gold market prices and increased corporate costs, a considerable number of gold companies are on the verge of bankruptcy.

At the same time, my country's gold enterprises are generally located in remote areas, small and scattered, and have difficult living conditions. Therefore, it is difficult to attract excellent technical talents and management talents. In addition, due to heavy production tasks, enterprises neglect management and neglect talents. Training and selection have made the management level of a considerable number of enterprises far behind those in other industries. In addition, the leaders of gold companies lack strategic decision-making awareness, which also seriously affects the development of the company. All these factors have led to the technological backwardness of my country's gold enterprises. Enterprises seriously lack technical strength, the overall quality of employees is low, and the effectiveness of technical equipment is difficult to effectively exert. A considerable number of enterprises still have not got rid of heavy physical labor, labor productivity is low, and production costs are uncontrolled. rising, lack of competitiveness.

People have fully realized that various problems that arise in the development process of gold enterprises must be solved by changing concepts and continuously deepening reforms. In order to adapt to the needs of the situation after my country's accession to the World Trade Organization, to adapt to the market needs of extending the gold product chain, and to adapt to the need to integrate with international standards, gold companies must formulate clear development strategies and change the traditional development model.

Almost at the same time, in Zijin Mountain, Shanghang County, 280 kilometers away from Xiamen, one of the four earliest special economic zones in China's reform and opening up, several young people headed by Chen Jinghe were facing a very real situation. He was thinking very calmly about the question: How to develop Purple Mountain? Where is the entry point for the development of Zijinshan gold mine? Another extremely important question is: Is Purple Mountain a cornucopia or a hot potato? After ten years of exploration, Zijin pioneers such as Chen Jinghe, Zeng Qingxiang, and Lan Fusheng are convinced that Zijin Mountain has great development value. They also know that in an old revolutionary area like Shanghang, the discovery of a gold mine like Zijin Mountain will mean to the people of the old area and the local economy. What.

However, the conclusion of the expert feasibility study report is discouraging - although Zijinshan was the only proven gold deposit in Fujian Province at that time, according to the detailed investigation results of the geological team, all the submitted The total reserves of gold mines are 18.9 tons, with an average grade of 2.24 g/ton, while the industrial reserves approved by the Reserve Committee are only 5.14 tons, with an average grade of 4.24 g/ton, which is a small gold mine. The expert feasibility study report concluded that the Zijinshan gold mine has low grade, high investment, high risk, and minimal development value. For this reason, the Zijinshan Gold Mine was almost rejected when the national project was approved, but Fujian Province and Longyan City decided to delegate the development rights of Zijinshan to Shanghang County and let local organizations develop it.

This is a challenge, but also an opportunity!

Although opportunities exist, not everyone can seize them! White paper is easy to draw on, but you also need good composition and brushes.

At this time, Chen Jinghe didn’t have Cao Zhi’s emotion of “If you don’t have a sharp sword in your hand, why make many friends?” He was thinking more about how to turn Purple Mountain into a cornucopia so that he could Does the haunting Purple Mountain have a place in China’s gold industry?

Regarding the conclusions in the Zijinshan Mine Development Feasibility Study Report, Chen Jinghe said frankly, “The Zijinshan gold and copper mine, which has invested a lot of manpower, material resources and funds, and achieved major exploration and scientific and technological achievements, has no mining value! "What an incredible result! What is the root cause? It's not a technical problem, it's a structural problem! To develop, Zijinshan Mining must change the mindset formed under the long-term planned economic system, break through the traditional mining model, and innovate the system!

In the initial stage, Zijin people did not participate in the discussion of the national gold enterprise development strategy, but with their own actions, they began the journey of exploring the development model of gold enterprises in the new era.

“Dare to walk where no one has walked before and bravely climb the highest peak in the world” is full of heroism, confidence and passion. It is soul-stirring and uplifting! These two sentences came from the pen of Luo Yingnan, the current general manager of Zijin Mining. They were the words he wrote for "The Song of Zijin Mining". In a sense, Zijin Mining's current development relies on the pioneering consciousness of Zijin people and the heroic spirit of Zijin people - "do things that others dare not or cannot do"!

RMB 29 million, this is the capital required for the first phase of the development of Zijin Mountain designed by the design department! In 1993, when Chen Jinghe finally obtained 3.5 million yuan in special funds from the People's Bank of China with the support of the State Gold Bureau, he was not at ease - 29 million: 3.5 million, the gap was too big, the gap was too big! Is it possible to use 3.5 million yuan to do something that takes 29 million yuan to complete?

“Treat Zijin’s affairs as your own family affairs!”

This is Chen Jinghe’s unswerving philosophy in running a business.

First engage in technological transformation!

As a general manager with a background as a senior geological engineer, Chen Jinghe is well aware of the importance of technology to mining companies. After ten years of exploration in Zijinshan, he knew very well that the Zijinshan gold mine was of low grade, which was Zijinshan’s disadvantage. But he also knew very well that the Zijinshan gold mine had a high degree of oxidation, which was another reason for developing the Zijinshan gold mine. Advantages. He made a decisive decision: contact the low-grade gold heap leaching technical consultation center of the original Ministry of Mines and Mines to introduce the heap leaching mineral processing technology!

For those who are engaged in gold, the heap leaching method is no stranger. Especially in places with better climate conditions and flat terrain in western and northern China, the heap leaching mineral processing technology has achieved brilliant results. Results. However, Shanghang is located in the mountainous area of ??western Fujian, and the climate is humid and rainy; the environment of Zijin Mountain is not very good, with many cliffs. Can the heap leaching mineral processing process be successful? People at the time were unsure about this, and leaders and experts generally held a negative attitude.

“Just do things that others dare not do or cannot do”! The purple gold is so proud that it soars into the sky.

Zijin people have established the basic concept of their own enterprise development - operating in accordance with the laws of market economy.

Zijin people are not reckless. They know that shopping malls are like battlefields, and running a business requires a sense of adventure. However, they pay more attention to the effectiveness of capital investment, otherwise it will be wasted. In the market, companies that are ineffective will eventually be eliminated. The market does not believe in tears. This is the iron law of market economy.

As early as 1991, the towering Purple Mountain witnessed Chen Jinghe leading a group of people to conduct heap leaching industrial experiments in its hinterland. Good steel should be used on the blade. When the company's start-up capital was very difficult, Zijin people resolutely decided to invest a lot of money in the first phase of technological transformation.

The success of the first phase of technical transformation laid a solid foundation for Zijin people to successfully complete the first phase of the project. They used the heap leaching method to replace the all-mud cyanide process commonly used in the domestic gold industry at that time. While the scale was more than five times expanded, the total investment was only more than 7 million yuan, less than a quarter of the original design investment.

Some experts believe that the heap leaching process will not be effective in the humid environment in the south. Zijin people have succeeded!

To build a house, you must first have land. This is common sense to everyone; to open a mine, you must first have mining rights. This is an express provision of the law. Zijin people have encountered a problem in the process of developing the company - maybe the relevant departments have doubts about Zijin people's technical strength, or maybe they want to set up a pilot project in Fujian to introduce foreign capital to develop low-grade gold mines. Zijin Mountain's mineral resources The development rights have been idle for a long time and were not given to Zijin people. Under such circumstances, the risks of mining the Zijinshan Gold Mine are too great.

In Zijin Mining, there is now a tradition that new employees must receive strict pre-job training before taking up the job. One of the important contents is to visit the old Gutian Conference site 70 kilometers away from Shanghang County. The spirit of the Gutian Conference had a great impact on Zijin people!

Zijin people believe that the Gutian Conference is a model of emancipating the mind and seeking truth from facts. Comrade Mao Zedong used Marxist ideological weapons and had a keen insight into whether he should adopt the approach proposed by the Sixth National Congress of the Party to recruit a large number of industrial workers into the party to transform the party's composition as a way to build the party and the Red Army, or whether he should adopt the old-style Chinese military ideology None of the Red Army's paths will lead to success. Only by proceeding from China's national conditions, the reality of the Fourth Red Army, and the party's requirements for the Red Army can we build a new type of people's army. It was on this important issue that Comrade Mao Zedong emancipated his mind and sought truth from facts, which laid the foundation for building the Party and the army.

The Zijin people have not forgotten that they are an old revolutionary base, they have not forgotten the role of the Gutian Conference in the history of the Communist Party of China, they have not forgotten the purpose of the Gutian Conference, they have not forgotten the essence of the spirit of the Gutian Conference, and they have not forgotten that when the time comes In the 1990s, Shanghang, an old revolutionary area that had made great contributions to the Chinese revolution, was still a provincial-level poverty-stricken county. At this time, Zijin people had a deeper understanding of the scientific connotation and great significance of Comrade Xiaoping's assertion that "development is the last word" and a deeper understanding of the spirit of the Gutian Conference of "emancipating the mind, seeking truth from facts; keeping up with the times." The connotations of the five spirits: "Be brave in innovation; advance despite difficulties and move forward indomitably; work hard and strive for practical results; be indifferent to fame and fortune, and make selfless dedication".

Yes, development is the last word! They decided to do it first and then talk about it!

The famous Japanese entrepreneur Konosuke Matsushita once said: "Emergency times require extraordinary means." The Zijin people decided to first work hard on their internal skills and carry out technological innovation; on this basis, they actively sought support from governments at all levels.

For cowards, pressure means retreat and death; but for strong-willed people, pressure brings motivation, and pressure brings innovation!

Following the first phase of technological transformation, Zijin people raised 4 million yuan of their own funds to carry out the second phase of technological transformation. In 1996, after the completion of the second phase of technical transformation, Zijin's production capacity doubled.

Zijin’s output and profits have grown almost exponentially, making Zijin Mining quickly become the financial pillar enterprise of Shanghang County.

The courage of Zijin people has been appreciated by governments at all levels, and Zijin’s development has also received strong support from governments at all levels.

Although the Zijinshan Gold Mine has not caught up with the state’s support for the development of the gold industry with preferential policies, it is lucky that the Zijinshan Gold Mine was born in the red land of Shanghang, because Shanghang Leaders of relevant departments in the county, Longyan City and even Fujian Province have devoted a lot of effort to the Zijinshan Gold Mine, creating good external conditions and atmosphere for the development of Zijin.

In the process of establishing a socialist market economy, the Shanghang County Party Committee and County Government have effectively implemented the government functions of "planning, coordination, supervision, and service" and strived to create relaxed development for the Zijinshan Gold Mine environment to create a good mechanism for Zijin entrepreneurs to display their talents and realize their potential.

The leaders of Shanghang County made it clear that the government should do government affairs and enterprises should do enterprise affairs. The government should create a relaxed environment for the development of enterprises, actively provide services, and not interfere in the internal affairs of enterprises. This gives Zijin Mining Group a great deal of autonomy, allowing it to do big things. Leaders of the Shanghang County Party Committee and County Government made it clear that Zijin Mining Group Company can boldly pursue projects as long as they comply with the spirit of the "three benefits" proposed by Comrade Deng Xiaoping.

In order to ensure the accumulation of enterprises, Shanghang County clearly stipulates for Zijin Mining Group: In addition to paying full income tax as required every year, the remaining profits will be used to expand reproduction of the enterprise; at the same time, it is strictly prohibited for all units and departments to pay Zijin Mining conglomerates are asking for money.

The strong support from leaders at all levels has greatly inspired Zijin people’s confidence in exploring a development path with Zijin characteristics, inspired Zijin people’s enterprising spirit, and inspired Zijin people’s pragmatic exploration and hard work. enthusiasm!

On the one hand, Zijin people speak based on the facts of their own production and operation performance, on the other hand, they actively use the influence of Shanghang Old District to carry out various activities to promote enterprises. They have not forgotten that Zijin Mountain is the mine of the people and the country. They are confident that they can successfully open this "Golden Mountain" that is generally regarded as "poor". They want to show the world the strength of the Zijin people - they are no better than foreigners. The company is bad! Foreign companies can develop low-grade mines, and they, the upright Chinese, the local descendants of Shanghang, and the descendants of Yan and Huang from all over the world can also do it!

The efforts of Zijin people finally achieved fruitful results. In 1999, Zijin Mining’s mineral rights issue was finally resolved. Since then, they have fully met the four requirements for "recognition" under international law: first, they have their own mining area; second, they have their own workforce; third, they have their own management organization; fourth, they have It has been widely recognized for its production performance.

Our government and our country are just. The acquisition of Zijin mineral rights fully illustrates this point.

Due to the low-cost characteristics of open-pit mining, most domestic mine development starts with open-pit mining to save capital investment and accumulate capital for the next step of transferring from open-pit mining to underground mining. Therefore, many mining operations in China have switched from open-pit to underground.

However, not many mining operations have switched from underground to open-pit mining.

The early mining method in Zijin Mountain was a cave mining method that Zijin people vividly called "eating the yolk." However, the shortcomings of this method are obvious-the small amount of ore mining and selection affects the improvement of the company's production capacity. Zijin people are fully aware that in order to become a larger enterprise, expand its scale and improve its production capacity, Zijin should change its mining method from cave mining to open-pit mining.

However, once the company switches from cave mining to open-pit mining, it means that the results of the first two technical reforms will become historical relics. However, running a business must focus on efficiency. For the development of the company, Zijin's leadership, who regarded the company as "its own business", had no other concerns and took another decisive step forward. We don’t know what their mentality was when they made this decision, and we don’t know whether they would have thought of the position their decision would occupy in Zijin’s development history, but they made this decision!

The Zijin people have done something that others dare not do!

In November 1997, after strict organization, with a series of heavy and cheerful explosions, clouds of smoke flew up in the Purple Mountain, and the Purple Mountain boiled - this event was called the "Big Explosion" The thousand-ton-level blast of "Uncovering the Cap" flattened the entire top of Zijin Mountain, kicking off the third phase of Zijin's technological transformation and the great development of Zijin Mining.

The "Golden Monkey" popped out. The Zijin Mountain, which had been sleeping for centuries, completely opened its eyes this time. The lid of the cornucopia was opened by the Zijin Man!

Since the 1990s, the business environment of domestic and foreign enterprises has undergone major changes. New technological revolutions are changing with each passing day, changes in economic and social systems have intensified, and the market situation is complex and ever-changing. From a domestic perspective, opening up to the outside world, institutional reform, the establishment of a socialist market economic system and the implementation of a modern enterprise system have caused the business environment of enterprises to be constantly changing.

The gold industry is a special industry. But according to Zijin people, they didn’t even catch the last train in the gold industry. But perhaps it was the reform of the gold industry that broke the status quo of "the emperor's daughter has no worries about marrying" in the gold industry, and that gave birth to Zijin's extraordinary development.

Zijin is located in Shanghang, a very backward area in western Fujian. When Zijin just started, there were only a dozen people. In the eyes of ordinary people, the quality of personnel in gold companies was generally low, and mining was just manual and menial work. Who would associate them with high-tech companies? For many people, this is probably something they don’t even dare to think about.

However, the Zijin people did it again.

1999 is a year of special significance in the development process of Zijin Mining Group Corporation. This year, the gold output and mining and processing scale of its supporting industry, Zijinshan Gold Mine, ranked first among all gold mines in the country. The company was included in the top ten gold groups supported by the Gold Management Bureau of the State Economic and Trade Commission, and was approved as a large-scale gold mine. enterprises and high-tech enterprises. Zijin leader Chen Jinghe was also hired as a visiting professor by China University of Geosciences (Wuhan), the highest institution of geosciences in China.

Zijin Mining’s long-term talent development and technological innovation strategies have also yielded fruitful results. In December 2001, with the approval of the Ministry of Personnel of the People's Republic of China, the Zijin Postdoctoral Workstation was officially established. Experts and scholars from some domestic universities and research institutes were attracted from all directions to Zijin Mining. In the same year, the company's laboratory successfully passed the on-site review of national laboratory accreditation and received an official certificate issued by the China National Laboratory Accreditation Board. By then, in accordance with the principle of international mutual recognition of laboratory accreditation and the multilateral agreements that my country has participated in, the test reports of three products, including gold ingots, standard cathode copper, and silver ingots, issued by the Zijin Mining Laboratory, can be purchased in the United States, the United Kingdom, Germany, and Japan. It has been recognized by more than 30 countries including China, Hong Kong and Taiwan, including South Korea. In terms of technological development, they have also achieved a series of achievements in the fields of gold mining and smelting. In 2002, the pre-oxidation technology developed by Zijin Mining technicians was used in the main battlefield of Zijin Mining's central development - Guizhou Shuiyindong Gold A major breakthrough has been made in the application of mines. After the inspection, Mr. Tu Guangchi, an academician of the Chinese Academy of Sciences and a mineral deposit and geochemistry scientist, pointed out that this technology is "a major breakthrough in the development of refractory primary gold deposits and has important practical significance."

Zijin people are restless. There seems to be endless sparks of ideas among them, from which endless "bubbles" of enterprise development can emerge. They did not let mountains limit their vision, but actively looked across the country to seize opportunities.

On March 6, 2001, the "Bidding Opening Ceremony for Xinjiang East Tianshan *** Exploration Bidding and Investment Activities" was held in Beijing, which marked that my country's mining rights market has entered a new era of establishment and improvement. stage. In this bidding activity, Zijin Mining from the mountainous area of ??western Fujian came out on top. In response, Jiang Chengsong, then deputy minister of the Ministry of Land and Resources, said: "I admire the courage of Zijin Mining very much" and "a single spark can start a prairie fire."

In the national mining rights reform pilot, Zijin people once again became the first to eat crabs, and at the same time kicked off their own western development.

Chen Jinghe has a clear and concise saying: "If we only position our company to develop the Zijinshan Gold Mine, we will be dead in the long run!"

The way of thinking determines the development direction of an enterprise. This is the deep understanding of Zijin people.

Yes, Zijin people did not position themselves only in mining from the beginning.

As a mining company, what is the relationship between mining and running a business? Some people think that mining is about building a business, and that mining well is about building a business.

But Zijin people know very well that even if a mining company is well managed, has excellent financial statements, and has advanced technical and economic indicators, if it is limited to mining and continues to mine day by day, what will be the end point? The results speak for themselves. Perhaps it is because they are very aware of the results of one-way thinking and linear motion or even plane motion that Zijin people made up their minds from the first day of mining not to mine so honestly. They position the business operations at a sliding point in the three-dimensional coordinates, which can move in any direction, and their thinking can swing in any direction. They know that the limited resources of mining companies determine the particularity of mining. Rather than letting the narrow mining tunnels block the miners' view, they began to ponder the question - how many years would they be able to mine? What to do after digging? Therefore, they are not satisfied with mining, but are focused on making the company bigger. If we want to make the 5-ton reserve bigger, we naturally need to figure out a way to make it bigger. So they searched high and low to break through ideologically, technically and institutionally.

Chen Jinghe designed the Zijin Enterprise logo: a point in the middle, and then a spiral spreading to all sides. This is a spiral expansion model. The Zijin people explained that they would go out from this point, rotate and expand in circles. Who said that Zijin people can only dig mines in Shanghang? Who says Zijin people can only mine mines in Fujian? Who says Zijin people can only mine gold? All over the world, as long as there is a mine suitable for Zijin people to open, Zijin people will open it; as long as there is an industry suitable for Zijin people to work on, Zijin people will work on it. So their market space expanded along with that spiral.

Zijin’s goal is to become a world-class mining company. Luo Yingnan, general manager of Zijin, said: "We just like to keep thinking wildly. We look for things that others can't do."

For more than ten years, Zijin people have used their own courage and courage to do things that they can't do. The outstanding corporate achievements announced the end of one-way thinking and linear movement in running mines.