Then there's the state owned Zijin Mining Group (China's biggest gold producer by market value), which said it would spend as much as $2.6 billion a year on acquisitions.
Zijin recently gobbled up Australian gold miner Norton Gold Fields, and took a 60% stake in the gold company called Altynken LLC in 2011.
And keep in mind, the Chinese government, via Zijin, has already bought major stakes in a slew of gold mining companies in recent years, including:
* Long Province Resources
* Gold Eagle Mining
* Inter-Citic Gold
Zijin may even be targeting Iamgold (IAG), one of the largest gold producers on earth, with a market value of $2.4 billion.
As Bloomberg reported: "[Gold mine] takeovers and asset purchases by producers based in China and Hong Kong rose to a record $2.24 billion this year, beating last year's record $1.96 billion."
And these are only the deals the government WANTS to make public.
The Chinese government has quietly made dozens of gold acquisitions that we know about, and could have many more in place they haven't yet revealed.