SMM12, 20 March: Serbia's energy minister Alexander Anthich said that China's Zijin Mining Group has injected US $350 million (306.9 million euros) into Serbia's copper mining and smelting company RTB Bor to gain a majority stake.
He added that Zijin planned to repay $200m of RTB Bor debt by Thursday and renamed the company Zijin Boer Copper.
The Chinese company also plans to invest $1.26 billion to improve RTB Bor production operations, open up new mines and improve efficiency. Serbia will become Europe's third-largest copper producer, with its mining share rising from 1 per cent to 5 per cent, according to Antic.
Earlier this year, Serbia chose Zijin as its strategic partner for RTB Bor. Zijin agreed to keep the company's current 5000 jobs.
In addition to Zijin Mining, major mining companies have also increased their investment in Zijin Mining. Serbia's mining minister said that if foreign investors continued to commit millions of dollars to copper and lithium production, Serbia's mining industry could expand to 5 per cent of national production by 2023. The sector currently accounts for 1 per cent of Serbia's gross domestic product. But since 2000, after a decade of isolation in Yugoslavia, more than 40 foreign companies, including Rio Tinto, Nefson, Zijin Mining and Mineco, have begun mining or exploring minerals in Serbia. "the mining industry in Serbia is the most dynamic sector in the country," said Alexander Antik, the mining minister.
Serbia has a mining population of about 7 million and currently employs about 22000 people. Rio Tinto is seen as another major investor in Serbia as it seeks to develop technology to extract lithium and borate from 136 million tons of stored jadarite named (Jadar River) on the Jadar River in the west of the country. The company has not said how much it is likely to invest in the country, but Antic said it could be as high as $1 billion.
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