China’s Zijin Gold International Co. Ltd. has struck an all-cash deal to acquire Toronto-based

Allied Gold Corp.

in a deal announced on the same day that the price of

bullion

smashed through

US$5,000 per ounce

for the first time ever.

Zijin will

pay $44 per share

, a 27 per cent premium to Allied’s weighted average 30-day trading price last week. Allied’s stock rose above $43 on Monday morning.

Gold mining equities are gaining strength with investors as they finally catch up with the underlying commodity that has been pushing through new records for three years and is up 82 per cent in the past 12 months.

The deal still requires approval under the

Investment Canada Act

, but it would cap a remarkable year for Allied, an intermediate-sized gold producer with assets in African countries, whose share price has surged more than 260 per cent surge in the past year.

“The announced transaction provides a highly attractive all-cash offer for Allied Gold at what represents an all-time high for the company’s share price, crystallizing significant and certain value for its shareholders,” Peter Marrone, chair and chief executive of Allied Gold, said in a press release.

In the past year, the VanEck Gold Miners exchange-traded fund, which holds the largest gold mining companies, has risen about 197 per cent to US$111.28 per share after a largely flat 2024, a shift that suggests investors are finally showing interest in the wider gold mining sector.

That rise mirrors gold, which outperformed the wider market in 2025, according to Nawojka Wachowiak, senior portfolio manager at Ninepoint Partners LP. She

predicted

that “central bank demand for bullion and increased interest from Western investors who began embracing gold as a strategic asset and portfolio diversifier” would continue in 2026.

Allied produced around 375,000 ounces of gold last year from its largest mine, Sadiola in Mali, and two mines in Cote D’Ivoire. That makes it small in an industry where the largest companies produce millions of ounces of per year, but Allied aims to more than double its production to 800,000 ounces per year by 2029.

Zijin, however, is one of the world’s largest mining companies, with assets spread across Asia, Africa, Europe and the Americas. Although headquartered in Fujian, with some partial state ownership, the company is listed on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange.

Gold is not considered a critical mineral, but the Canadian government has used the Investment Canada Act to block Chinese mining companies’ acquisitions in the past.

For example, in 2020, it stopped China’s

Shandong Gold Mining Co. Ltd.

from acquiring TMAC Resources Inc., which operated a struggling gold mine in Hope Bay, Nunavut. But that deal involved a gold mine in the Canadian Arctic, which some analysts have taken as a sign that such national security reviews are context-specific.

On the flip side, Zijin in 2022 acquired TSX-listed Neo Lithium Corp., which was developing a lithium mine in Argentina. The $960-million deal generated significant controversy, including parliamentary hearings about China’s growing dominance of the electric vehicle and battery supply chain, but ultimately was not blocked.

Allied’s mines are also outside Canada, and Prime Minister

Mark Carney

recently returned from  Beijing where he sought to reset trade relations with

China

.

The transaction, expected to close in late April, still needs two-thirds of Allied’s shareholders’ approval and it comes after Allied’s board of directors commenced a strategic review in 2024 to examine how to best maximize shareholder value.

Mohamed Sidibé, an analyst at National Bank Financial, said Allied’s operations in Mali — where Toronto-based Barrick Mining Corp. recently paid US$430 million to resolve a years-long conflict with the government — could deter other would-be buyers.

But he said some Allied investors may want a higher premium since new assets are expected to come online this year.

“Ultimately, this will come down to shareholders and whether they view the premium as sufficient and whether Zijin would be willing to up its bid here specifically as gold prices continue to rally,” he said in a note.

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• Email: gfriedman@postmedia.com