Ore Not Present Just in East Serbia – Green Permit Sought for Mining in Sumadija at 52 Grams of Silver per Ton

The company “Rudnik i flotacija Rudnik doo”, which operates as part of the company Contango, has filed a request to the competent ministry for deciding on the necessity of an environmental impact assessment study for the project of the exploitation of the polymetallic ores at the Rudnik site on the eponymous mountain.

The site is located close to the small town of Rudnik in the Municipality of Gornji Milanovac.

The request was filed in December, after the new Main Mining Project was prepared for this copper, zinc, lead and silver mine, which opened in 1950 and was part of the Trepca collective until 1989, after which it was privatized in 2004.

According to the request, the then Ministry of Environmental Protection, Mining and Spatial Planning adopted the decision in 2011 that envisaged the development of mining works for a 10-year period with an annual capacity of 240,000 tons of useful mineral substance, until the end of March 2021.

– Why the validity of the Main Mining Project was limited to 10 years at the time is not clear. Perhaps the most logical explanation would be that the geological reserves of the ore were the limiting factor, but, the fact that, in mining, there is a rule that, each year, however much of the geological reserves of the ore is excavated, at least as much geological reserves of the ore is supposed to be discovered, was not taken into consideration – the document says.

Also, it is added, from 2010 until the end of 2021, a total of 2,768,096 tons of new geological reserves was discovered, which means that the exploitation reserves of the ore amounted to 2,507,486 tons, and in the same period, 2,267,795 tons of geological reserves was excavated.

The new Study of Ore Reserves, concluding with June 2020, determined new geological ore reserves and they amount to 1,580,851 tons, which creates the conditions for a continuation of the exploratory preparation works and the exploitation of the ore in the coming period.

For that reason, last year, the company prepared the new Main Mining Project, according to which the production capacity would amount to 240,000 to 286,000 tons of run-of-mine ore.

– In all the coming years, for each year, the annual plan of ore excavation is such that, however much of the geological reserves of the ore is excavated, as much geological reserves of the ore will be discovered, so the new Main Mining Plan has no time limitations on that basis if the exploitation of the ore is still done in the same exploitation field – the text of the project reads.

According to the new Main Mining Project, the median metal content in the run-of-mine ore at this site is 2.22% of lead, 2.38% of zinc, 0.24% of copper and 52 grams of silver per ton of ore.

The nominal capacity of the pit is estimated at 49,000 tons a year, with an exploitation period of up to 4 years.

Let us remind that, in 2017, Rudnik announced that an ore body very rich in copper, lead, silver and zinc had been detected.

B. P.

Ostrvica rudnik doo Gornji Milanovac

Contango doo Beograd

Ministarstvo zaštite životne sredine Republike Srbije

Rudnik i flotacija Rudnik doo Gornji Milanovac

Contango

Ministry of Environmental Protection

town of Rudnik near Gornji Milanovac

lead copper zinc and silver mine

exploitation of polymetallic ores