Jiangxi Copper Company Ltd (600362.SH / 0358.HK) has submitted two non-binding cash offers to acquire all shares of London-listed SolGold, aiming to consolidate control over the Ecuadorian Cascabel copper-gold project, though the offers have so far been rejected by SolGold’s board.
On December 1, Jiangxi Copper surged by the daily limit of 10% at one point before closing 9.16% higher at 40.86 yuan per share.
One day earlier, Jiangxi Copper announced that on November 23 and November 28, 2025, the company submitted two non-binding cash offers to the board of SolGold, a company listed on the London Stock Exchange. The latest non-binding cash offer proposed to acquire all shares of the target company at 26 pence per share (about 2.43 yuan).
Jiangxi Copper currently holds a 12.19% stake in SolGold, but the acquisition remains at the non-binding offer stage and has been rejected by the target’s board. The company reserves the right to make a formal offer, though its decision remains uncertain. Under the UK City Code on Takeovers and Mergers, it must either announce a formal offer or explicitly abandon the bid by December 26, 2025.
SolGold is a mining exploration and development company headquartered in Perth, Australia. Its core asset is the 100% equity of the Cascabel project in Ecuador, whose main Alpala deposit currently has proven, indicated, and inferred resources of 12.2 million tons of copper, 30.5 million ounces of gold, and 102 million ounces of silver. The proven and probable reserves are 3.2 million tons of copper, 9.4 million ounces of gold, and 28 million ounces of silver. The project has completed a pre-feasibility study. In addition, SolGold owns dozens of exploration projects at different stages in Ecuador and other locations.
In March 2025, Jiangxi Copper’s wholly-owned subsidiary, Jiangxi Copper (Hong Kong) Investment Co., Ltd., signed a share purchase agreement with SolGold Canada Inc., under which Jiangxi Copper Hong Kong Investment purchased 157 million shares of SolGold held by SolGold Canada, accounting for about 5.24% of its issued shares, with a total transaction price of $18.0712 million. After the transaction, Jiangxi Copper Hong Kong Investment held a total of 366 million SolGold shares, accounting for 12.19% of its issued shares.
Through this transaction, Jiangxi Copper became the largest single shareholder of SolGold. At the time, Jiangxi Copper said in its announcement that, if an agreement was reached with SolGold, the company would provide technical consulting services for SolGold’s Cascabel project in Ecuador.
In its 2025 semi-annual report, Jiangxi Copper stated: “The company will continue to carefully screen and scientifically evaluate domestic and international resource projects, proactively pursue and widely acquire information on new high-quality merger and acquisition targets, striving for new breakthroughs in the field of investment and acquisitions.”
On October 28, Jiangxi Copper released its Q3 2025 report. The report showed that the company’s revenue for the first three quarters reached 396.047 billion yuan, a year-on-year decrease of 0.08%; net profit attributable to shareholders was 6.023 billion yuan, an increase of 20.85% year-on-year; net profit after deducting non-recurring items attributable to shareholders was 6.26 billion yuan, an increase of 6.20% year-on-year; and basic earnings per share were 1.74 yuan.