Mining Smelter Basin "Bor" negotiates with foreign companies about exploitation of barren land

The Director General of Mining-Smelter Basin (RTB) "Bor", Blagoje Spaskovski, said yesterday (May 28, 2009) that that company was negotiating with several European companies about joint participation in exploitation of RTB's "barren land".

- Our estimates is that 70 tons of gold, 300 tons of silver and about 600,000 tons of copper can be obtained from the barren land that has been depositing for decades during the process of production of concentrate (raw materials for copper production) - the Director of RTB said to the press.

He said that, according to the current prices on the Stock Exchange, the estimated value of all those metals "amounts to about 0.5 billion USD".

According to his words, RTB has already contacted some companies that are willing to invest up to 50m USD in the state-of-the-arts units for exploitation of copper, gold and silver.

Spaskovski pointed out that smaller flotation barren lands with lower percentage of valuable metals would be recultivated and that 33m USD would be set aside for that purposes thanks to the favorable loans of the World Bank.

- The recultivation project should be finished within 5 years, and about 300 workers should be engaged in its realization - said the Director of RTB "Bor".