China’s Zijin Mining has pushed its Serbian operations into a new financial tier, with combined profits from its core entities exceeding €1bn, reinforcing the country’s position as one of the most profitable copper and gold extraction hubs in Europe amid sustained high metal prices and export-driven growth.
The latest financial disclosures show that Serbia Zijin Mining and Serbia Zijin Copper delivered a sharp expansion in earnings, with profit growth outpacing already strong revenue gains. Revenues increased by roughly 20% year on year, while profitability accelerated even faster, reflecting both favorable global copper pricing and operational scaling at Bor and Čukaru Peki.
This marks a structural shift from the previous cycle. In 2024, the two companies had already generated close to €1bn in combined profit, with Zijin Mining contributing around €715m and Zijin Copper about €252m. The latest results push that aggregate comfortably above the billion-euro threshold, effectively positioning Zijin as the single most profitable industrial platform in Serbia by a wide margin.
At the revenue level, the expansion has been equally significant. Earlier filings show Serbia Zijin Mining revenues rising to around 180–213 billion dinars (€1.5–1.8bn equivalent range depending on year), supported by increased concentrate output and full-scale ramp-up of underground operations. The 2026 reporting cycle confirms that trajectory, with topline growth continuing at double-digit rates.
The underlying driver remains the industrialization of the Bor mining complex, which has transitioned from a historically loss-making asset into a high-margin export engine. Prior to Zijin’s entry, the former RTB Bor carried over €1bn in accumulated losses, requiring repeated state support. The turnaround now places the same asset base at the center of Serbia’s export and profit structure.
Operationally, Zijin’s Serbian footprint is increasingly defined by three pillars: high-grade copper-gold extraction at Čukaru Peki, expanded smelting and refining through Zijin Copper, and continuous investment in exploration and capacity scaling. The company has already deployed over €2.2bn in cumulative investment into the Serbian mining platform, building out infrastructure and upgrading processing technology to global standards.
This scale is now visible at the macroeconomic level. Zijin has consistently ranked among Serbia’s largest exporters, effectively anchoring the country’s non-ferrous metals trade balance. The concentration is extreme: the two Zijin entities alone account for a dominant share of profits within the Chinese corporate cluster operating in Serbia, generating over 90% of total profits among the largest Chinese companies in the country.
The profit expansion also reflects broader commodity dynamics. Copper markets have remained structurally tight, supported by electrification demand, grid expansion and energy transition supply chains. In that context, Serbia’s positioning—via Zijin—as a near-EU copper and gold production base becomes increasingly strategic, particularly under tightening CBAM-related cost structures for imports into the European Union.
However, the financial structure reveals a more nuanced capital flow dynamic. A significant portion of profits is distributed through dividend payments to parent entities, including holding structures registered outside Serbia. In previous reporting periods, tens of billions of dinars were earmarked for dividend distribution, highlighting the dual nature of the investment: strong domestic industrial activity paired with outward capital flows.
From a cost perspective, rising revenues have been accompanied by increasing operating expenses, particularly in energy, materials, and labor. Yet margin expansion has persisted, suggesting that ore grades, scale efficiencies, and pricing power have more than offset cost inflation.
The broader implication is that Serbia’s mining sector has effectively entered a new phase—one defined by high-margin export concentration, foreign capital dominance, and integration into global metals supply chains. Within that structure, Zijin’s Serbian operations are no longer just a large industrial asset; they are a systemically important profit center shaping trade balances, fiscal inflows, and industrial policy direction.
Looking forward, the key variables will not be production capacity—already scaled—but commodity price trajectories, EU carbon-border mechanisms, and potential downstream processing integration within Europe. If copper prices remain elevated and Serbia succeeds in capturing more value through processing or fabrication, the current profit base could translate into a broader industrial platform.
For now, the headline remains clear: Zijin’s Serbian operations have crossed the €1bn profit threshold, cementing their role as the most financially dominant industrial asset in the country and one of the most profitable mining positions in South-East Europe.
