China's third-largest gold bullion producer Shandong Gold Mining has agreed to buy a 74-percent stake in Chifeng Chaihulanzi Gold Mining Co for about 260 million yuan (US$37.96 million), the company said in a statement today.

Chaihulanzi mine, based in North China's Inner Mongolia autonomous region, recorded sales of 104.6 million yuan and a net income of 45.9 million yuan in the first 10 months of the year, the Shanghai-listed Shandong Gold said in a stock exchange filing on Dec 24.

China's gold mine output may reach 280 tons this year, Song Quanli, an official with China National Gold Group Corp, China's largest gold firm, said earlier this month.

China, the world's largest gold producer, registered a total output of 223.08 tons of gold in the first 10 months of this year, up 3.32 percent from a year earlier, according to figures released by the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology earlier in December.

(China Daily December 24, 2008)