Chinese company Zijin Mining interested in RTB Bor – Serbia to pay Mytilineos EUR 40 million in four installments

The Chinese company Zijin Mining is interested in RTB Bor, the company's executive director, Chen Jinghe, said on Saturday, January 27, 2018.

– To us, it's very important for the production capacities to expand, as the expenses would drop accordingly, and for the production to expand, large investments in mechanization and production are needed, in order to build three facilities such as you had the opportunity to see at our company, as RTB Bor might be competitive in the market by increasing its capacities – he said.

Chen Jinghe added that it was clear that the project was full of challenges, but that the company had a comparative advantage regarding how innovative its technology was.

– The key thing for us is for the privatization of RTB Bor to be in line with the laws of the Republic of Serbia – he pointed out at the meeting with the president of the National Council for Coordination of Cooperation with the Russian Federation and the People's Republic of China, Tomislav Nikolic, and the delegation of the Government of Serbia which visited the company.

Nikolic said that, unlike the preceding period, when privatization were not successful, the current Government worked on having each privatization increase and modernize the production and bring new capital and added that Serbia needed such a privatization.

– I'd like us to cooperate, for RTB Bor to become another foreign mine for you. It is up to you to estimate whether this is a good privatization or not, but you can see Serbia as a true friend. These days, we are talking about the successful privatization of Zelezara Smederevo, but I have to tell you that RTB Bor is perhaps ten times as valuable for Serbia. I emphasize this in order for you to understand how important it is to Serbia for RTB Bor to start operating at full capacity – he said.

Greek company to get EUR 40 million from RTB Bor per verdict

The debt of RTB Bor of EUR 40 million to the Greek company Mytilineos is to be paid by Serbia by the end of the year in four installments, without interest, in line with the decision by the International Court of Arbitration in Geneva, RTS learns.

The Greek company will withdraw all other lawsuits concerning the debts of the Bor giant, dating back to the 1990s, which the mine failed to settle in line with the then valid agreements.

The arrangements with Mytilineos will be specified by an agreement which the Government is supposed to adopt in the upcoming days.

The management of RTB Bor signed several agreements with Mytilineos at the time.

The cause of the multiannual arbitration procedure, Mytilineos says, is that RTB Bor did import copper concentrate, processed it, but never sent it back to the Greek company.

The amount in question is 4,000 tons of copper produced by melting the raw material.

Serbia Zijin Copper doo Bor

Zijin Mining Group Co Beijing

Nacionalni savet za koordinaciju saradnje sa Ruskom Federacijom i Kinom

Rudarsko Topionicarski Basen Bor

RTB Bor

Zijin Mining

Chen Jinghe

privatization of RTB Bor

National Council for Coordination of Cooperation with the Russian Federation and the People s Republic of China

Tomislav Nikolic

Mytilineos

International Court of Arbitration in Geneva

Bor mine

copper concentrate

copper processing

copper