RTB Bor has 1,200 surplus employees

Rudarsko-Topionicarski Basen (RTB) Bor has 1,200 surplus workers of the total of around 5,000. Among other things, this was pointed out at the session of the Managing Board of the company, which has been marked, along with several other enterprises, as a “black hole” of the Serbian economy by the IMF.

– The plan is for around 1,200 workers to leave RTB with stimulative severance payments, which would reduce staff costs by nearly USD 15 million. However, Bor also needs to employ around 300 young and educated people to work with modern and highly demanding equipment – emphasized the general manager of the company, Blagoje Spaskovski.

According to him, RTB is currently short of USD 80 million for maintaining current liquidity, of which USD 50 million in order to buy copper concentrate, necessary for putting the smelting capacities into operation, directly from subcontractors, instead of dealers. The remaining USD 30 million are needed for the purchase of processed materials and spare parts.

The chairman of the company also emphasized that RTB didn't have the money and that it could be secured only through a change in the ownership structure, thereby alluding to privatization or arrival of a strategic partner.

– The continuation of the productions requires USD 23 million for the purchase of the necessary new equipment in the Majdanpek copper mine. Furthermore, the reserves at the Cerovo 1 copper mine and nearly depleted, and the opening of Cerovo 2 is therefore necessary. The documentation for this job has been prepared, and the land buyout process has also been initiated – Spaskovski pointed out.

As Novosti learns, all this is being done so that conditions would be met in near future for the opening of the third and the biggest mine in the area, to be called Cerovo Primarno.

– The most important fact is that we don't have around USD 350 million needed in the next two years for opening a mine in the Cerovo complex, increasing the production in Majdanpek and underground mines within RTB – Spaskovski says.

The production of 48,000 tons of copper, 842 kilograms of gold and 4.3 tons of silver, as well as the processing of around 164,000 tons of imported copper concentrate, necessary for putting the new smelter with the capacity of 400,000 tons a year into operation at full capacity, have all been planned for this year.

Serbia Zijin Copper doo Bor

Međunarodni monetarni fond-MMF Beograd

RTB Bor

RTB Bor Group

RTB Bor Managing Board

Blagoje Spaskovski

copper concentrate

Majdanpek copper mine

copper

Cerovo 1 copper mine

Cerovo 2 copper mine

Cerovo copper mine

Cerovo

Cerovo Primarno mine

Cerovo Primarno

gold

silver

gold production

silver production

copper production

copper concentrate processing

RTB Bor employee surplus