Zijin to stop copper smelter in Serbia for overhaul
BELGRADE - The Serbian arm of China's Zijin Mining plans to stop production at its copper smelter for three months to carry out a planned work, it said in a statement on Thursday.
Serbia's only copper smelting complex in the eastern town of Bor will be halted from April 20 until the end of July for improvements to bring it in line with environmental protection standards and increase capacity, it said.
The company's 2022 annual plan listed the scheduled maintenance and also set total production at 85 000 t of cathode copper, 1 580 kg of gold and around 13 t of silver.
"After the modernisation of metallurgical units, the smelter in Bor will be functioning according to the highest environmental standards," the statement said.
To boost economic growth, revenues and reduce unemployment, the Serbian government, which faces an election on April 3, has offered mineral resources to investors including China's Zijin copper miner 601899.SS and Rio Tinto, sparking protests by environmental groups.
In 2018, Zijin Mining became Serbia's strategic partner in RTB Bor, pledging to invest $1.26-billion in return for a 63% stake.
Last year, Zijin opened the Cukaru Peki underground copper and gold mine in the Bor region that is expected to make the Balkan country Europe's second-largest copper producer.
China has so far invested billions of euros in Serbia, which is a candidate to join the European Union, mostly in the form of soft loans for infrastructure and energy projects, as part of its belt and road initiative to open foreign trade links.
Comments
The
content
you are trying to access is only available to subscribers.
If you are already a subscriber, you can Login Here.
If you are not a subscriber, you can subscribe now, by selecting one of the below options.
For more information or assistance, please contact us at subscriptions@creamermedia.co.za.
Option 1 (equivalent of R125 a month):
Receive a weekly copy of Creamer Media's Engineering News & Mining Weekly magazine
(print copy for those in South Africa and e-magazine for those outside of South Africa)
Receive daily email newsletters
Access to full search results
Access archive of magazine back copies
Access to Projects in Progress
Access to ONE Research Report of your choice in PDF format
Option 2 (equivalent of R375 a month):
All benefits from Option 1
PLUS
Access to Creamer Media's Research Channel Africa for ALL Research Reports, in PDF format, on various industrial and mining sectors
including Electricity; Water; Energy Transition; Hydrogen; Roads, Rail and Ports; Coal; Gold; Platinum; Battery Metals; etc.
Already a subscriber?
Forgotten your password?
Receive weekly copy of Creamer Media's Engineering News & Mining Weekly magazine (print copy for those in South Africa and e-magazine for those outside of South Africa)
➕
Recieve daily email newsletters
➕
Access to full search results
➕
Access archive of magazine back copies
➕
Access to Projects in Progress
➕
Access to ONE Research Report of your choice in PDF format
RESEARCH CHANNEL AFRICA
R4500 (equivalent of R375 a month)
SUBSCRIBEAll benefits from Option 1
➕
Access to Creamer Media's Research Channel Africa for ALL Research Reports on various industrial and mining sectors, in PDF format, including on:
Electricity
➕
Water
➕
Energy Transition
➕
Hydrogen
➕
Roads, Rail and Ports
➕
Coal
➕
Gold
➕
Platinum
➕
Battery Metals
➕
etc.
Receive all benefits from Option 1 or Option 2 delivered to numerous people at your company
➕
Multiple User names and Passwords for simultaneous log-ins
➕
Intranet integration access to all in your organisation