Sally Zou denies billion-dollar deal with Chinese state-owned company

A Liberal Party donor has distanced herself from a billion-dollar sales deal with a Chinese state-owned company.

AusGold owner Sally Zou, a prominent Liberal Party donor and sponsor of the Port Adelaide football club, is reported to be ­developing four mines in Australia.

AusGold owner Sally Zou — a prominent Liberal Party donor and sponsor of the Port Adelaide football club — has distanced herself from a reported multi-billion-dollar sales deal with a Chinese state-owned company.

Ms Zou, who owns a Rolls-Royce emblazoned with the Australian flag, donated $460,000 to the Liberal Party in 2015-16 and uses social media to praise federal ­politicians and government ­departments.

According to several Chinese media reports, Ms Zou, who is ­developing four mines in Australia, signed a deal with China Gold Group on March 21 “potentially worth $US100 billion”.

The deal would give the group exclusive ownership of all gold produced from AusGold’s mines, according to the reports, which are accompanied by photos of Ms Zou signing a document alongside a China Gold Group representative, NSW Resources Minister Don Harwin and a Chinese ­embassy consular official.

The reports also say the deal would result in 10,000 jobs and $3.5bn in tax revenue in Australia.

China Gold Group is a state-owned Chinese gold corporation involved in mining and refining gold, silver and copper and selling gold and silver bars. Song Xin is China Gold Group’s general manager and party secretary of the ­organisation.

A spokesman for Ms Zou yesterday denied she had inked a deal, and said all she had signed was a “letter of intention”, which marked the company as a potential buyer.

AusGold was considering to whom it would sell its gold, he said. “It’s a letter of intention to show AusGold has goodwill to them. It’s a culture thing. AusGold cannot control what the Chinese media says.

“We would prefer to sell our gold to Australian buyers. We are very loyal to the Australian community and Australian government. We are committed to Australia’s future. We would like to make contributions back.”

Records show AusGold’s Good Friday Gold Mine, south of Tibooburra in NSW, gained development consent to expand in Aug­ust. Environmental consultants who worked on the bid said the mining operations would last five to six years.

As well as the Tibooburra mine, AusGold is understood to have two more mines in dev­elopment in NSW and another in Western Australia, near ­Kalgoorlie.