said April29 that its net profit attributable to shareholders for the first quarter rose by215.68% to 60.3 million Chinese yuan, or 2 fen per share, from 19.1 million yuanor 1 fen per share, posted a year ago.

Operatingrevenue dropped 30.01% year over year to 5.60 billion yuan from 7.99 billion yuandue to lower sales volumes. Total costs were cut by 30.81% to 5.48 billion yuanfrom 7.92 billion yuan.

In fullyear 2015, net profit increased 41.39% year over year to 86.4 million yuan, or 3fen per share from 61.1 million yuan, or 2 fen per share, posted in 2014, outperformingguidance.

The increasein profits was attributed to lower asset impairments, increased return on investmentsand the incorporation of income from gold miner Lingyuan Rixing Mining Co. Ltd.

ShandongGold acquired LingyuanRixing from parent China National Gold Group Corp. in October 2015 for 372.3 millionyuan.

Operatingincome rose 10.46% year over year to 37.06 billion yuan from 33.55 billion yuan,due to growth in gold processing operation. Operating cost was up 12.73% year overyear to 34.52 billion yuan.

Meanwhile,dividend payments were suspended in 2015, compared to a final dividend of 10 fenper 10 shares in 2014.

In 2015,the company mined 27.03 tonnes and refined 163.10 tonnes of gold, representing anincrease of 2.84% and 1.24%, respectively, from 2014.

Provedgold reserves increased by 42.12 tonnes to 561.49 tonnes in 2015 and proved copperreserves increased by 16,600 tonnes to 435,800 tonnes.

The companyowns 126 mining licenses covering an area of 748.93 square kilometers.

Thisyear, gold output is targeted at 27.34 tonnes while refined gold production is expectedto drop to 119.13 tonnes.

As of April 28, US$1 was equivalentto 6.48 Chinese yuan.