BlackRock, the enormous American asset manager with over $4.6 trillion of assets under management, has waged its first significant activist campaign around the G-Resources Group, a Hong Kong company that owned a gold mine. It may be Hong Kong, and it may be only one campaign, but companies should be fearful.

That the words activism and BlackRock are mentioned together is deep with symbolism. BlackRock has historically shied away from openly challenging companies. Indeed, Laurence D. Fink, BlackRock’s chairman and chief executive, has become a thought leader in the pushback against what he terms “short-term” activism. Only in February, Mr. Fink wrote to hundreds of chief executives to warn against what he termed short-term activism like share buybacks and dividends, calling on them instead to focus on “long-term value creation.”

Illustrative of BlackRock’s reputation as the pro-company asset manager, one of its own shareholders is proposing a proxy resolution to force the asset manager to be more openly confrontational about the executive pay at the companies held in its funds’ portfolios. The shareholder contends that BlackRock’s proxy voting behavior is inconsistent with long-termism. From July 2014 to June 2015, BlackRock’s funds voted yes in 99 percent of shareholder “say on pay” votes for companies in the Standard & Poor’s 500-stock index, higher than the 90 percent average support for such votes at other fund companies.

So the battle over G-Resources is significant because it may be a sign of things to come.

G-Resources is a company listed in Hong Kong but organized under the laws of Bermuda. It was formed to develop the Martabe gold mine in Indonesia. The road has been bumpy for the company as the price of gold has fluctuated. But there was never any doubt that gold was its main business with perhaps a sideline in silver. Only two years ago, G-Resources raised $156 million to bolster its working capital and focus on developing the mine.