Serbia Zijin Copper has sold 17.005 tonnes of gold to the National Bank of Serbia since taking operational control of the former RTB Bor complex, establishing a direct link between foreign-controlled mineral production in eastern Serbia and the central bank’s strategy of accumulating monetary gold.
Between 2019 and the end of June 2026, the company delivered 1,356 gold bars to the NBS. The average bar weighed approximately 12.54 kilograms, consistent with the standard format produced by the Bor precious-metals refinery.
The volume is striking when compared with Serbia’s historical reserve position. Zijin’s cumulative deliveries over seven and a half years are larger than the country’s entire gold stock a decade ago and equivalent to approximately 31% of the 54.565 tonnes held by the NBS at the end of June 2026.
The first half of 2026 brought a further acceleration. Serbia Zijin Copper delivered 164 bars weighing 2.057 tonnes, representing more than 12% of all the gold supplied by the company since 2019. Annualised, that pace would imply production of slightly more than 4.1 tonnes for the full year, although mine grades, concentrate throughput, maintenance and metallurgical recovery make a simple extrapolation uncertain.
At a late-July international gold price of approximately $4,026 per troy ounce, the cumulative 17.005 tonnes would have a current market value of roughly $2.2 billion, or close to €1.9 billion. The 2.057 tonnes delivered during the first six months of 2026 would be worth approximately €230 million at the same price. These are current-value estimates rather than the historical amounts paid by the NBS, since the deliveries were purchased at prevailing prices over several years.
The arrangement is not a voluntary concession by Zijin. Serbian legislation requires domestically produced gold to be offered first to the central bank, which holds a statutory right of first refusal. Serbia Zijin Copper has retained the model previously used by RTB Bor: each refined quantity is offered to the NBS before it can be sold elsewhere.
The central bank has consistently exercised that right. No produced quantity offered under the arrangement has been released for sale to another buyer. Gold refined from the Bor operations therefore remains in Serbia as part of the country’s official reserves.
That structure gives the NBS a predictable domestic acquisition channel without depending exclusively on international bullion markets. It also provides the producer with an institutional buyer capable of purchasing the full output at market-related prices.
The distinction between purchase and state capture of mineral value remains important. Zijin does not transfer the gold to Serbia without compensation. The NBS buys the metal, exchanging liquid reserve assets or dinars for bullion. The transaction changes the composition of Serbia’s reserves, but it does not by itself represent fiscal revenue or a free transfer of mineral wealth to the state.
The public-sector economic return from the mining operation instead comes through several channels: mining royalties, corporate and payroll taxes, employment, domestic procurement, dividends associated with the state’s 37% ownership of Serbia Zijin Copper and the value created by retaining refining and metallurgical activity in Bor. China’s Zijin Mining owns the remaining 63% following its 2018 capital injection into RTB Bor.
The company’s gold output is primarily linked to copper mining and processing. Gold is recovered as a valuable by-product from ore treated through the Bor mining, smelting and refining system. Its economics are therefore connected to copper volumes, ore grades, metallurgical recoveries and the operation of the precious-metals refinery rather than to a standalone Serbian gold mine.
This makes the Bor complex strategically more important than production statistics based solely on copper tonnage suggest. Serbia Zijin Copper produced 123,286 tonnes of mined copper in 2025, while refined-copper production reached 43,852 tonnes. Gold, silver and sulphuric acid provide additional revenue streams and improve the economics of processing ore domestically.
The NBS’s accumulation policy has transformed the composition of Serbia’s international reserves. Gold holdings increased from 14.8 tonnes in August 2012 to 54.565 tonnes at the end of June 2026, a rise of almost 269%. The gold stock was valued at approximately €6.2 billion and represented around 21% of gross foreign-exchange reserves. National Bank of Serbia
Serbia’s gross reserves stood at €29.609 billion at the end of June, down by €273 million from the record €29.882 billion reported a month earlier. Net reserves declined by €362.8 million to €25.056 billion.
The fall demonstrates the market risk created by holding a larger proportion of reserves in bullion. Gold prices declined by approximately 11.4% in dollar terms during June, cutting the euro value of Serbia’s gold holdings by around €618 million, even though the physical stock increased.
The stronger US dollar against the euro partly offset that decline, leaving overall negative market effects on the reserves at approximately €474.9 million. The movement did not represent a sale or physical loss of gold. It was a mark-to-market reduction caused by the international price.
This distinction is significant for assessing the NBS strategy. Gold does not generate interest and can experience substantial short-term valuation swings. It nevertheless provides diversification from foreign-government securities, bank deposits and reserve currencies. It also carries no direct credit exposure to a foreign issuer and can act as a hedge during financial, geopolitical or currency stress.
The June decline illustrates the cost of that protection. A reserve portfolio with 21% allocated to gold is more exposed to bullion volatility than one dominated by short-duration sovereign debt and deposits. The NBS is accepting that volatility in exchange for a larger stock of an asset that is politically neutral and not dependent on the solvency of another institution.
Serbia’s reserves remained comfortably above standard adequacy thresholds despite the monthly valuation loss. At the end of June, gross reserves covered approximately 6.8 months of imports of goods and services and were equivalent to 164.3% of the M1 money supply, more than twice the level generally used as a minimum adequacy benchmark.
The domestic gold-purchase mechanism also gives Serbia a degree of strategic circularity. Ore is mined in the country, processed through domestic metallurgical facilities, refined into bullion and purchased by the central bank. The producer receives commercial payment, while the physical metal becomes a sovereign reserve asset.
That model is economically stronger than exporting unprocessed concentrate and later purchasing refined gold abroad. Domestic smelting and refining preserve industrial activity, technical knowledge and part of the processing margin. They also give the state a clearer record of production and a practical opportunity to exercise its statutory purchase right.
Yet the arrangement does not settle the wider debate over the allocation of value from Serbia’s mineral resources. Zijin controls the majority of Serbia Zijin Copper and owns its separate Čukaru Peki operation through Serbia Zijin Mining. The expansion of Chinese-controlled copper and gold production has brought investment, higher output and modernised facilities, but it has also increased the importance of transparent royalty calculations, environmental compliance, transfer pricing and independent verification of metal content.
For the state, the value of keeping bullion in national reserves should not be used as a substitute for measuring whether the mining sector delivers an adequate fiscal and industrial return. The NBS purchases gold at commercial value; the more fundamental public-finance questions concern royalties, taxable profit, dividends from the state’s minority stake, remediation liabilities and the amount of processing retained within Serbia.
The scale of the 2026 deliveries shows that Bor has become one of the main physical sources supporting Serbia’s reserve-diversification policy. The 17.005 tonnes acquired from Serbia Zijin Copper are now worth roughly one-third of the country’s total gold stock by weight. Continued deliveries at the first-half pace would deepen that relationship and make the operational performance of a Chinese-controlled mining and refining complex increasingly relevant to the composition of Serbia’s sovereign reserves.
