Inner Mongolia is one of key lead-zinc producing areas of China. According to statistics of China Nonferrous Metals Industry Association,between January and October 2010, lead concentrate output of Inner Mongolia amounted to 344,900 tons, ranking the top in China. As a land of nonferrous metals, Chifeng takes the leading position in nonferrous metals reserves in Inner Mongolia with its daily lead-zinc mining & dressing capacity of 40,000 tons.

In order to speed up development, Hongling Lead-Zinc Mining Plant transferred its property right and attracted investment in the 100,000-ton lead smelting project in 2009. Shandong Gold Group purchased 90% of state-owned equities of Hongling Lead-Zinc Mining Plant via transfer agreement and restructured the latter.After restructuring, the mine has significantly improved its mining and dressing capacity driven by capital, technology and advanced management and business mode, increased its daily processing tonnage of 1,000 tons/day at the initial stage of the takeover to 1,500 tons/day, based on which the group plans for another extension and expects to reach a processing volume of 3,000 tons/day.