Construction of Cukaru Peki mine near Bor might start in 2020 – Reserves of 44.7 million tons of copper and gold ore confirmed

A total of 44.7 million tons of ore with a high concentration of copper and a gold and silver content has been confirmed in the upper zone of the Cukaru Peki site near Bor, Serbian Mining and Energy Minister Aleksandar Antic confirmed.

The minister said that the Chinese company Zijin was working intensively on the project of the opening of the Cukaru Peki mine, whose construction might start in 2020, whereas the exploitation might start in the second half of 2021.

He says that the opening of the Cukaru Peki mine is one of Zijin’s priorities, as well as one of Serbia’s priorities in mining.

– It is very important that we signed this document on the confirmation of reserves at Cukaru Peki today – Antic told Tanjug.

He added that the confirmation enabled Zijin to continue the activities towards the opening of the Cukaru Peki mine in 2020.

– We expect the works on the opening of the mine to start in 2020 and the exploitation of copper to start as soon as the second half of 2021. With this new production of copper, Serbia will be in the position of having the impact of mining on the GDP increase considerably. Our estimates are very optimistic and we expect mining to grow from 2% to 4-5% of the GDP in the next several years – Antic pointed out.

The minister adds that this will give a great contribution to the total development of the Serbian economy.

Let us remind that, in November, Zijin announced that it would pay its partner Freeport-McMoRan the initial USD 240 million for a share in the lower zone of the Cukaru Peki copper and gold mine in Timocka Krajina, plus 0.4% of the net income from sales once the production starts, up to the maximum amount of USD 150 million, which eKapija has already written about.

Zijin Mining is one of the largest Chinese producers of gold, which announced at the time that it would buy the copper and gold mine in Serbia for USD 390 million from Freeport, thereby considerably increasing its resources of both metals.

Zijin, a strategic partner of RTB Bor, already owns 100% of the upper zone of the site, which it bought from Canada’s Nevsun, and the purchase package also included 60.4% of the lower zone.

After the transaction is completed, the company will own a 100% share in the resources of the upper and the lower zone, Zijin announced.

As announced, this latest move will enable Zijin to increase the total copper resources it controls by 7.72 million tons or 15.6% to 57.24 million tons, whereas the company’s gold resources will increase by 161 tons or 9.3% to 1,889 tons.

As announced earlier, Zijin expects the transaction to be completed by February 29, 2020, at the latest.

Ministarstvo rudarstva i energetike Republike Srbije

Serbia Zijin Copper doo Bor

Nevsun Resources Ltd.

Freeport McMoRan

RTB Bor

Aleksandar Antić

Čukaru Peki

construction of a mine

copper

gold

copper reserves

gold reserves

Zijin