Gold mining companies have raked in massive profits in the first half of the year.

Recently, listed companies in the gold sector have intensively disclosed their performance reports for the first half of 2026.

There are 11 gold stocks under the Wind 4th-level industry classification. Among them, 8 companies including Sichuan Gold, Zhaojin Gold, Western Gold, and Zijin Mining have released their 2026 semi-annual reports; Chifeng Gold and Zhongjin Gold have issued performance forecasts, while Shandong Gold has not yet released either the performance forecast or the official semi-annual report.

As market expectations for the Federal Reserve's interest rate hikes keep fluctuating, the international gold price remains high and volatile, and the trend of gold stocks fluctuates accordingly. Although the rise in gold prices has driven the overall sector to deliver positive performance, the profitability elasticity of listed companies in different links of the industrial chain has diverged: enterprises with self-produced gold mines see prominent profit growth, smelting and processing targets gain limited benefits, and capital starts to select high-quality targets with sound fundamentals for layout.

Profits of upstream mining enterprises surge

Wind data shows that since June 30, spot gold has started a strong rebound after bottoming out at $3942.43 per ounce. The uptrend accelerated in August, with a cumulative increase of about 15% since the start of the month. As of press time on the 26th, spot gold hit a peak of $4673.652 per ounce.

Regarding the core driving logic behind this round of high gold prices, Wang Hongying, Dean of the China (Hong Kong) Financial Derivatives Investment Research Institute, pointed out that the rise in gold prices is the result of the resonance of multiple factors: the US debt has exceeded 40 trillion US dollars, market concerns about the credit of the US dollar have risen, and the weakening US dollar has boosted the safe-haven value of gold; US economic data is weak, and expectations for interest rate cuts have heated up, boosting the valuation of gold; global central banks continue to purchase gold, institutional willingness to allocate gold has increased, coupled with a breakout on the technical front, the gold price is expected to hit $5,000 per ounce in the follow-up period.

With the rise in gold prices, the performance of upstream enterprises with self-produced gold mines has increased significantly in the first half of the year.

Financial reports show that Zijin Mining achieved an operating revenue of 194.178 billion yuan in the first half of 2026, a year-on-year increase of 15.78%; the net profit attributable to shareholders reached 39.17 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 68.17%, ranking first in the industry in terms of profit scale.

According to Zijin Mining's semi-annual report, the main driving force behind the company's high performance growth comes from the rise in metal prices, especially the significant year-on-year increase in prices of gold, copper and lithium, as well as the contribution of some new production capacities. The comprehensive gross profit margin of its mining enterprises reached 69.34%.

The semi-annual report of Xiaocheng Technology shows that the company achieved an operating revenue of 315 million yuan in the first half of the year, a year-on-year increase of 44.29%; the net profit attributable to shareholders of listed companies was 55.7083 million yuan, a year-on-year increase of 31.24%. The substantial growth in operating revenue is mainly due to the increase in gold sales revenue.

Regional high-quality mining enterprises also delivered outstanding performance. Shanjin International achieved an operating revenue of 9.659 billion yuan in the first half of the year, a year-on-year increase of 4.47%; the net profit attributable to shareholders was 2.416 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 51.43%.

Western Gold's semi-annual report discloses that it achieved an operating revenue of 11.043 billion yuan in the first half of the year, a year-on-year increase of 119.62%; the net profit attributable to shareholders was 547 million yuan, a year-on-year increase of 315.67%. The financial report shows that the main reason for the change in Western Gold's operating revenue is that the sales volume of the company's gold products increased compared with the same period of the previous year, and the sales price also rose year on year.

Sichuan Gold's net profit attributable to shareholders in the first half of the year was 433 million yuan, a year-on-year increase of 107.34%. The company mentioned in its semi-annual report that the year-on-year rise in net profit is mainly due to the increase in sales of gold concentrate and the year-on-year rise in gold price.

Zhaojin Gold's net profit attributable to shareholders in the first half of the year was 227 million yuan, a sharp year-on-year increase of 407.44%. The notes to the semi-annual report show that the current period includes a debt restructuring gain of 135 million yuan, which belongs to non-recurring gains and losses. The net profit attributable to shareholders after deducting non-recurring items was 104 million yuan, a year-on-year increase of 666.39%.

In addition, Zhongjin Gold expects its net profit attributable to shareholders to be between 4.1 billion yuan and 4.6 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 52.15% to 70.70%; Chifeng Gold expects its net profit attributable to shareholders to be between 1.7 billion yuan and 1.78 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 54% to 61%.

Smelting enterprises are limitedly affected by the rise in gold prices

From the perspective of absolute values of operating revenue and net profit, smelting enterprises such as Hengbang Co., Ltd. and Hunan Gold have achieved positive growth in their 2026 semi-annual reports, with overall stable operations. According to the data disclosed in the financial reports, the overall gross profit margin of the two enterprises is lower than that of mining enterprises.

Financial reports show that the overall gross profit margin of Hunan Gold in the first half of 2026 was 5.64%, and most of the revenue from its gold business came from trade and smelting business using externally purchased raw materials; calculated based on the financial report data, the overall gross profit margin of Hengbang Co., Ltd. in the first half of the year was 2.60%.

Hengbang Co., Ltd. stated in the record of investor relations activities in May this year: "The company has limited self-owned mine resources, the proportion of self-produced ore smelting is very small, and the gross profit margin of smelting with externally purchased raw materials is lower than that of self-produced ore smelting." In May 2024, Hengbang Co., Ltd. stated in the record of investor relations activities: "The rise in gold price will boost the company's profit, but as the gold price rises, the price of raw materials will also rise, so the company's gross profit remains relatively stable."

According to the financial report, the net profit attributable to shareholders of Hengbang Co., Ltd. in the first half of the year increased sharply by 112.60% year on year, while the net profit after deducting non-recurring items decreased by 9.08% year on year. The company's semi-annual report shows that the profit growth in the current period comes from non-recurring gains from equity disposal.

In Wang Hongying's view, against the backdrop of rising gold prices, the performance of domestic listed gold enterprises has diverged significantly, which mainly stems from two core factors. The first is the difference in resource reserves. Enterprises with sufficient gold mineral resources and semi-finished product inventories fully benefit from the rise in gold prices, with their assets, performance and stock prices rising simultaneously; enterprises with relatively few resource reserves see relatively weak performance growth. The second is the disturbance from non-operating gains and losses. Some enterprises have stable main businesses, but their overall performance is dragged down by non-operating gains and losses, which further intensifies the industry's differentiation.

Gold stock prices rebound

The performance differentiation is also reflected in the trend of the secondary market.

Wind shows that starting from June 30, the date when the gold price bottomed out, as of the close on August 26, A-share gold stocks generally recorded an increase, but the increase showed obvious differentiation.

Among them, Zhaojin Gold has the strongest elasticity, rising from 11.72 yuan to 20.21 yuan, with a cumulative increase of about 72.4%; Shanjin International follows closely, rising from 17.00 yuan to 27.37 yuan, with an increase of about 61.0%; Sichuan Gold rose from 36.66 yuan to 52.33 yuan, up about 42.7%; Western Gold rose from 22.00 yuan to 30.54 yuan, up about 38.8%; the leading enterprise Zijin Mining rose from 25.14 yuan to 34.47 yuan, up about 37.1%.

In contrast, the smelting target Hengbang Co., Ltd. lagged significantly behind, with an increase of about 1.6%, almost remaining flat.

Looking at a longer cycle, starting from January 2, the first trading day of 2026, as of the close on August 26, the year-to-date performance of these 6 A-share gold stocks also shows an obvious differentiation pattern.

Among them, Sichuan Gold has accumulated an increase of about 89.4% during the year, becoming the most elastic target in the sector; Zhaojin Gold follows closely, with a year-to-date increase of about 54.7%; Western Gold and Shanjin International have similar performance, rising by about 15.2% and 14.4% respectively; Hengbang Co., Ltd. has risen by about 12.2% during the year. Zijin Mining was dragged down by the stock price correction in the first half of the year, with the most mediocre performance during the year, rising only about 2.7%.

Aiming at how ordinary investors can deploy the gold sector, Wang Hongying suggests focusing on four fundamental indicators: first, mineral reserves, which determine the long-term growth space; second, cost control, which ensures the profitability stability of the main business; third, risk management, which smooths periodic fluctuations through hedging; fourth, valuation level, to screen targets with room for recovery by comparing with the industry average.

Wu Zewei, a special researcher at Shangsu Bank, told Zhongxin Jingwei that when deploying listed gold companies, investors should focus on the real profitability elasticity. Prioritize the annual output of mineral gold and unit cash mining cost to judge the upper limit of profitability and risk resistance; track the commissioning progress of under-construction projects and capital expenditure plans to grasp medium and long-term growth; at the same time, pay attention to the hedging scale, liabilities and cash flow status to evaluate the profit realization capacity of enterprises.

This article is from the WeChat official account "Zhongxin Jingwei" (ID: jwview), written by Li Ziman, edited by Dong Wenbo, and authorized for release by 36Kr.