The Chinese company Zijin opened the copper and gold mine Cukaru Peki near Serbia, one of the richest deposits of those ores in the world, whose exploitation reserves are 36.99 million tons.
The opening of the mine will provide Serbia with the second place in the production of copper in Europe, just behind Poland, with 18 percent of the total produced copper, and now that share is five percent, while Serbia will be the second in Europe in terms of gold production, behind Finland.
Since the end of 2018, Zijin has been the majority owner of the former Mining and Smelting Basin (RTB) Bor, where ore from the new mine, in which 474 million euros have been invested, will be processed.
The planned production of copper and gold ore in the upper zone of the mine is 3.3 million tons per year, or 10,000 tons of processed concentrate per day. The mine is expected to employ more than 1,200 workers.
The new copper and gold mine will be the first “green mine” in Serbia, which means the use of modern technology during ore mining and the highest standards in the field of environmental protection.
“A completely new mine has been built, on the other side of Bor, it protects the environment in the most modern way, it has all the necessary wastewater treatment plants to protect the environment, to have better air and for people to be able to say with certainty that their children they have real future here,” said Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic.
Speaking about the importance of Zijin’s arrival in Serbia, Vucic said that today, two of the three largest exporters from Serbia, who contribute the most to the gross domestic product, are companies that come from China.
„2018. year, the average salary in RTB was 500 euros, and today it is 800 euros, and we have a promise from Zijjin that it will go over 830 euros in the next few months. Just look at that difference. A square meter of living space in Bor was 300 euros, and today it averages 480 euros. So far, they have hired, in addition to the people they kept, an additional 1,780 workers, solved our problems financially and gave us a lot of money, so many families have received bread. We took three times more money for ore rent this year than three years ago, which is a comparison of three and nine million euros,” he emphasized.
At the opening of the mine, Zijin’s director of business abroad, Zijin Chiju Guoju, said that Serbia has positioned itself in Central and Eastern Europe as an important destination for Chinese investments, which is contributed by favorable investment conditions and steel friendship between Serbia and China, Beta reports.
