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China’s Zijin Mining Group Co Ltd has agreed to buy Canadian miner Continental Gold Inc for 1,3 billion Canadian dollars (US$1 billion), but a top executive with the target company said increased security concerns in Colombia pose a risk to the deal. Announced on Monday, the offer by state-backed Zijin for Continental aims to secure Continental Gold’s flagship Buritica gold project in Colombia.

“Zijin doesn’t have any experience in Colombia, and we have obviously had some incidents in the past,” Continental chief financial officer Paul Begin told Reuters News Agency.

“But if a major security incident happened at any project, it would be considered a material adverse change and they would have an out if they wanted to,” he said.

Four employees of Colombia-focused Continental were killed in a single month last year, one near Buritica and the others at a different exploration site. — Aljazeera.