Following the recent holiday period, Baiyin Nonferrous Group Co., Ltd. (stock code: 601212.SH) has seen its stock price rapidly hit the daily limit. On October 17, the stock price surged to a remarkable limit up, closing at 6.53 CNY per share, marking the fifth limit-up in just seven trading days.
Currently, the non-ferrous metals sector is in a bull market. Experts have indicated to reporters that Baiyin Nonferrous exhibits notable characteristics of "strong commodity attributes and weak financial attributes." Compared to gold, silver possesses a stronger industrial attribute, with significant demand potential in emerging industries such as renewable energy and 5G technology. Furthermore, in light of the continuous rise in gold prices, silver is also poised for a rebound.
Despite this upward trend, Baiyin Nonferrous has a diverse business portfolio where silver constitutes a minor segment. Apart from general bullish sentiment for gold, silver, and rare earths, favorable factors also include Baiyin's continuous investments in the gold sector. Recently, the company announced a plan to invest 1.5 billion CNY to establish a gold subsidiary aimed at developing a full gold industry chain.
However, it is crucial to note that Baiyin Nonferrous has faced significant challenges recently, reporting a staggering net loss of 217 million CNY for the first half of the year, which is a dramatic year-on-year decline of 1859.82%. This decline underscores a range of management issues, as the company has faced multiple disclosures of information violations and more severe incidents like the forgery of sales documents leading to embezzlement of copper products, as well as 990 tons of zinc ingots being stolen.
What has driven the recent stock price increases?
On October 17, Baiyin Nonferrous again experienced a limit-up, closing at 6.53 CNY per share after gaining 0.59 CNY, up by 9.93% from the previous trading day. Following the holiday, the stock managed five limit-ups over seven trading days, seeing increases on October 9, 10, 13, and 16, interspersed with slight pullbacks on the 14th and 15th.
The rapid rise is backed by several favorable factors, particularly Baiyin Nonferrous's intensified focus on gold. Before the recent holiday, Baiyin announced plans to invest 1.5 billion CNY into establishing a gold subsidiary to engage in exploration, development, smelting, and processing across the entire gold chain. Additionally, the company revealed on September 17 that its Brazilian copper-gold mine project had completed delivery in April, adding 704,000 tons of copper resources and 13.44 tons of gold resources, marking a significant breakthrough in resource allocation.
Moreover, Baiyin Nonferrous has ventured into the rare earths sector, holding 49% of Gansu Rare Earth New Material Co., Ltd., one of Asia's largest producers of chlorinated rare earths, with an annual capacity for processing rare earth ore reaching 30,000 tons.
As an established state-owned enterprise in the non-ferrous sector, Baiyin Nonferrous has diversified its operations significantly. According to the mid-year report for 2025, the company has a comprehensive production capacity of 400,000 tons of copper, 400,000 tons of lead and zinc, 15 tons of gold, and 500 tons of silver annually.
Additionally, Baiyin is pursuing new business avenues. On September 17, the company indicated during an earnings presentation that a 5,000-ton nano-zinc oxide project had begun trial production in July 2025, marking its entry into the lithium battery and new materials sectors.
In terms of industry performance, the non-ferrous metal market has shown continued strength this year. The closure of the Grasberg copper mine in Indonesia has caused significant supply disruptions, resulting in a 3.46% surge in LME copper prices to 10,320 USD per ton as of September 24. Likewise, COMEX gold futures rose to 4,130 USD per ounce by October 14, reflecting an increase of over 56% since the start of the year.
Silver has even outperformed gold recently, with the London spot silver price recently breaking through crucial thresholds of 45 USD and 50 USD per ounce. As of October 17 at 14:25, the silver price stood at 54.251 USD per ounce, representing a year-to-date increase of over 80%, making Baiyin Nonferrous, with its name prominently featuring "silver," a hot topic in the market.
Regarding the trends within the non-ferrous sector, financial wealth manager Wu Suwei mentioned in an interview that the recent strong performance of silver prices is primarily driven by increasing demand from solar power and electronics industries. Compared to gold, silver's stronger industrial attributes imply greater potential for demand in sectors like renewable energy and 5G technology. With a smaller market size, silver tends to demonstrate more pronounced performance during precious metal bull markets, potentially leading to greater price volatility.
Gao Zhengyang, a special researcher at Su Shang Bank, also pointed out the significant "strong commodity attributes and weak financial attributes" of silver. Given the ongoing increases in gold prices, silver stands out as a significant rebound candidate.
However, it's important to note that Baiyin Nonferrous has warned of potential risks regarding its stock price fluctuations. On October 13, the company indicated that there were no major changes to its fundamentals and that risks of a possible stock price decline remain.
Behind Disappointing Performance Lies Management Chaos
Despite having "silver" in its name, Baiyin Nonferrous's business scope has far surpassed that of metallic silver. According to its half-year report, the total revenue from its silver business was just 2.023 billion CNY, accounting for a mere 4.54% of total revenue. In contrast, revenues from cathode copper, gold, and zinc ingots stood at 21.232 billion CNY, 8.318 billion CNY, and 3.292 billion CNY respectively, with these segments' revenue shares exceeding that of the silver business.
While many non-ferrous mining companies have seen continued growth amidst the industry's strong performance this year, Baiyin Nonferrous has experienced stagnation and reported a noticeable decline in its performance this year. Financial statements revealed that in 2023, Baiyin Nonferrous recorded total revenues of 86.971 billion CNY, with a net profit of 83.064 million CNY; in 2024, revenues slightly decreased to 86.787 billion CNY, yielding a net profit of 80.791 million CNY. Notably, for the first half of 2025, revenues plummeted to 44.559 billion CNY, down 15.28% year-on-year, resulting in a net loss of 217 million CNY.
Addressing the reasons behind the disappointing first-half performance, Baiyin Nonferrous explained in its filings that a legal dispute regarding storage contracts between Shanghai Honglu International Trade Co., a subsidiary, and the Nanchu Storage Management Group has led to criminal enforcement against stored aluminum ingots. Based on the latest developments in this case and a principle of caution, the firm plans to set aside estimated liabilities of approximately 314 million CNY, which has adversely affected semi-annual results.
Moreover, it is essential to highlight that, beyond contract disputes, Baiyin Nonferrous has experienced frequent management irregularities in recent years. On September 10, the company announced that it was under investigation by the China Securities Regulatory Commission for suspected information disclosure violations. This came after receiving regulatory letters from the Shanghai Stock Exchange for two consecutive years.
On September 30, further revelations indicated that Baiyin Nonferrous had purchased 30 billion CNY worth of financial products from August 2017 to March 2018, which were not redeemed on schedule in 2019. Nonetheless, the company did not disclose specific information about these financial products in its annual reports from 2019 to 2024, exposing significant omissions. As a result, Baiyin was warned and fined 4 million CNY, with the general manager, secretary of the board, and financial director facing fines ranging from 500,000 to 1.5 million CNY.
This is not the first instance of internal controls issues at Baiyin Nonferrous. In July of this year, while responding to inquiries from the Shanghai Stock Exchange, the company disclosed an unreported criminal case involving a former marketing employee colluding with external parties to forge sales documents to embezzle cathode copper, with the amount involved reaching as high as 157 million CNY. Additionally, there was another incident in November 2023 where 990 tons of zinc ingots went missing.
Regarding the resolution of information disclosure violations, Baiyin Nonferrous stated in its announcements that it would actively rectify according to regulations, strengthen the understanding of relevant laws and normative documents, and continuously enhance financial management standards and operational compliance awareness. Concerning the theft of 990 tons of zinc ingots, the company indicated that it would implement an SAP information system in 2024 to enhance enterprise information management levels and ensure real-time communication across all segments to prevent similar incidents in the future.
Zhang Xinyuan, head of the Kefa Think Tank Research Institute, analyzed that such management issues can indeed damage the market information environment, making it difficult for investors to access accurate and complete company information, thus tarnishing the credibility of the entire non-ferrous metals industry. Companies should urgently implement comprehensive reforms and rebuild market confidence through concrete actions. Simultaneously, investors are encouraged to take a rational view of short-term stock price fluctuations and focus more on the long-term quality of corporate operations.
To gain further insights into these issues, reporters attempted to reach Baiyin Nonferrous by phone on October 17 and sent an outline for an interview, but no response was received by the time of publication.
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