Shares of China’s CMOC jump after announcing acquisition of Lumina Gold

BEIJING (Reuters) -Shares of China’s CMOC Group jumped on Tuesday, after the miner said it would acquire Canada-listed Lumina Gold for C$581 million ($420.7 million) in an all-cash deal.

The acquisition will enable CMOC gain access to the flagship asset of Lumina Gold’s Cangrejos gold project, with total mineral reserves of 659 million tons, located in Ecuador’s El Oro province, the largest primary gold deposit in the south American country.

CMOC’s Shanghai-listed shares jumped more than 4%, while its Hong Kong shares rose over 8%.

Shares of Lumina Gold soared by 29%.

The acquisition comes at a time when gold prices have staged a rally to multiple historical highs this year, fueled by safe-heaven demand amid uncertainties around the U.S. tariff impact and lingering geopolitical conflicts.

CMOC, headquarted in Luoyang city in central China’s Henan province, reported an annual increase of 64% in net profit for 2024 in March, aided by a ramp-up in copper and cobalt output.

The company also has assets of molybdenum, tungsten, niobium and phosphate fertilizer.

($1 = 1.3811 Canadian dollars)

(Reporting by Amy Lv and Lewis Jackson; Editing by Varun H K)