Construction of copper smelter and sulfuric acid plant at RTB Bor kicks off

(RTB Bor)

Works on the construction of a new copper smelter and a sulfuric acid plant at Mining-Smelter Basin (RTB) Bor were ceremoniously started on Tuesday. Once completed, in 2014, these facilities will the most modern of the kind in Europe.

The ceremonious commencement of works was marked by Minister of Economy Nebojsa Ciric, born in Bor, who said that the new smelter would enable the entire company to register the annual revenues of about USD 1 billion, while the ecological pollution in that city would be drastically reduced.

He announced that RTB Bor would be restructured by the year's end and, instead of the current four companies, it would comprise one engaged in mining and metallurgy.

Reminding that thanks to the initiative of the Serbian government from 2.5 years ago the efforts were put into raising RTB Bor back to its feet and that the state provided over EUR 35 million on that occasion, Ciric stressed that the works on a big wastewater treatment plant and a new copper flotation in Majdanpek would start soon.

Ciric pointed out that the salaries currently paid to workers at RTB Bor, amounting to about RSD 50,000 a month (miners receive about RSD 100,000, while metallurgists are paid about RSD 70,000 per month), were not big when having in mind their working conditions and added that they can expect higher wages in the near future.

Minister of Environment, Mining and Spatial Planning Oliver Dulic reminded that he had declared Bor as the "black ecological spot of Serbia" back in 2008 and promised that the construction of new facilities would completely change that image of Bor.

With the construction of a new sulfuric acid plant, 98.5 percent of sulfur dioxide will be refined into sulfuric acid, Dulic said, adding that this percentage at the moment is only 30%, while the rest pollutes air and environment.

- Thanks to the modernization of the Bor-based company and the copper price increase in the global market, RTB Bor can expect to register a USD 1 billion revenue per year from the production of copper, sulfuric acid and other products - Dulic stressed.

- The Serbian government plans to invest about EUR 3 billion in mining in order to significantly modernize that branch of industry and make it more competitive, which will also lead to creation of new jobs, higher standard and bigger salaries for citizens - said Oliver Dulic.

Leader of the United Regions of Serbia Mladjan Dinkic reminded that the old smelter had been built 50 years earlier and that it was high time to modernize that facility. He pointed out that the current price of copper in the global market amounted to about USD 9,000 per tonne and that it was very likely to rise to over USD 10,000 in the years to come, which would make it possible for RTB Bor to make bigger profits.

Serbia Zijin Copper doo Bor

Ministarstvo privrede Republike Srbije

Ujedinjeni regioni Srbije Beograd

Samostalni sindikat trgovine Beograd

Ministarstvo rudarstva i energetike Republike Srbije

copper smelter Bor

Bor

sulfuric acid production

Nebojsa Ciric

pollution reduction

Ministry of Environment of Serbia

Oliver Dulic

sulfur processing

copper production

copper smelter

wastewater treatment plant

Mladjan Dinkic

John Morrison

Kiri Vejlaine

Ljubisav Orbovic

Blagoje Spaskovski

copper price