Canada’s New Gold Rush: China Drops $5.5 Billion on TSX Miner
Zijin Mining’s $5.5 billion takeover of Allied Gold is the first major test of Mark Carney’s "Strategic Partnership," delivering a massive payday for shareholders while daring Washington to blink.
It took less than two weeks for the theoretical to become very, very expensive. On Monday, just ten days after Prime Minister Mark Carney returned from Beijing with a handshake and a new "Strategic Partnership," China’s Zijin Mining announced it is acquiring Canadian-listed Allied Gold Corp (TSX:AAUC) in an all-cash deal valued at C$5.5 billion. If you were looking for the first tangible result of Ottawa’s pivot to the "Middle Powers," you just found it.
The timing is so precise it feels choreographed. While the Prime Minister was in Davos this weekend assuring the world, and a volatile Donald Trump, that Canada has "no intention" of pursuing a comprehensive Free Trade Agreement with China, corporate lawyers were finalizing a transaction that effectively funnels billions of Chinese yuan into the Canadian equity market. The deal sees Zijin paying C$44 per share, a roughly 27% premium that Allied Gold CEO Peter Marrone called a "very fair deal" for shareholders, especially given the volatility of operating in Africa.

