New mines and diplomacy: Romanian NGOs demanding cross-border consultations on Zijin’s plan for Çukaru Peci and Malka Golaj mining and metallurgy complex

Twenty-eight Romanian NGOs sent a letter to Diana Anda Buzoianu, Romania’s Minister of Environment, Water and Forests, on August 17, requesting that Romania launch cross-border public consultations on the Çukaru Peci and Malka Golaj mining and metallurgy complex planned in eastern Serbia by the Chinese company Zijin Mining. This formally internationalizes the issue of Serbia’s largest planned mining expansion for the first time.

The Romanian organizations point to the cross-border impact that the new complex would have on Romania. The project is located in the Timok basin, which flows into the Danube at the tri-border point of Serbia, Bulgaria and Romania, just a few kilometers from the Romanian municipality of Gruia, almost exactly on the border of the Mehedinti and Dolj counties. Downstream, the counties of Olt, Teleorman, Giurgiu, Calarasi, Ialomita, Constanta and Tulcea follow, including the Danube Delta.

The organizations refer to the Espoo Convention on Environmental Impact Assessment in a Transboundary Context and in particular its Protocol on Strategic Environmental Assessment (the 2003 Kiev Protocol), which extends the obligation of transboundary consultation from individual projects to plans and programs. Article 10 of the Kiev Protocol obliges the State of Origin to inform the potentially affected State “as early as possible” and to make the plan and the strategic assessment report available to its public, in its language. Both Serbia and Romania are signatories to the Convention and the Protocol.

On June 18, 2026, the Government of Serbia adopted a decision on the development of a Spatial Plan for a Special Purpose Area for the future complex. The plan is being financed by Serbia Zijin Mining d.o.o., part of the Chinese Zijin Mining group, the second largest copper producer in Europe, which intends to expand production to 850,000 tons per year, mostly for export to China. The plan covers an industrial area of 126 square kilometers in the territories of Bor and Zajecar and envisages the expansion of the Cukaru Peki underground mine, a new combined surface and underground copper and gold mine Malka Golaja to more than 1,000 hectares, a flotation tailings pond of about 1,900 hectares in the Kriveljska River valley, and a new metallurgy complex outside the city center of Bor, with a smelter with a capacity of up to 400,000 tons per year and an accompanying sulfuric acid plant. The displacement, or expropriation, of part of the local population is also envisaged.

The plan also envisages the abstraction of more than 800 liters per second from the Crni Timok River, which is approximately half of the river’s summer flow, while the Kriveljska River is designated as the location of the tailings pond. Both watercourses flow into the Danube via the Timok. The concept of the plan itself (Study) states that Bor, via the Borska River, the Timok and the Kriveljska River, “could potentially cause transboundary water pollution in downstream Danube countries (Romania and Bulgaria).”

The Romanian organizations particularly emphasize the impact on the Vlach national minority, historically concentrated in the Bor and Zajecar districts. In the village of Krivelj, which lies directly on the Kriveljska River, Vlachs make up about 60% of the population. UN special rapporteurs expressed concern in August 2025 that the burden of Zijin’s expansion fell disproportionately on this minority and warned of the risk of further displacement. The Vlach community is an officially recognized national minority, protected by the Constitution of Serbia and international law.

The plan covers more than 280 protected plant and animal species and 16 habitat types of international importance. Field research on Malka Golaja in 2025 recorded 91 species protected by the Bern Convention, 21 species from the EU Habitats Directive and 29 from the Birds Directive. The plan also includes a 7,000-year-old cultural corridor, with ancient Roman villas, rustica and roads in the Nikolicevo and Slatina areas, and the UNESCO site of Gamzigrad-Romuliana is located about six kilometers from the planned Malka Golaja mine.

There is already opposition to the project in Serbia. At an early public review, which lasted until August 3, around 2,000 Zajecar citizens signed a petition against the project in approximately three hours, and around 300 written objections were submitted. The letter from Romanian organizations also comes after criminal charges were filed against Zijin for illegal logging in Malka Golaja, after which the state forestry inspectorate ordered an immediate halt to work. The company has previously violated regulations: in 2020, the Bor city administration filed a criminal charge against the smelter’s management for sulfur dioxide concentrations reaching 2,285 micrograms per cubic meter, against the legal limit of 350, and in 2024, Zijin Copper was fined two million dinars for illegally building a mining facility in Bor.

The Romanian organizations are asking their ministry to request through diplomatic channels that Serbia formally notify Romania under Article 10 of the Kiev Protocol and grant Romania the status of a potentially affected party. This would mean that Romanian authorities, municipalities and citizens, as well as the Vlach community in Serbia, would receive the draft plan and the strategic assessment report in Romanian, at the same time as the Serbian public. The organizations are also calling for independent expert assessments of the transboundary and cumulative impacts, which would include the latest expansion of the open-pit mine “Juzni revir” in Majdanpek and the relocation of the Mali Pek River, as well as for Romania to raise the issue bilaterally with the Serbian Ministry of Environmental Protection and the European Commission, since cross-border cooperation in the field of environment is part of the EU acquis in Chapter 27.

– For years, they have been telling us that Bor and Majdanpek are local stories. They are not. What flows into the Kriveljska River and the Timok River does not stop at the border, but reaches the Danube, at the tripoint of the three countries. Serbia is a signatory to the Kiev Protocol, and its own planning document recognizes the possible transboundary impact on Romania and Bulgaria. This means that it is obliged to inform its neighbors as early as possible. An early public review has already been held, and Romania has not been informed to date, so the neighbors themselves are now seeking answers – said Martin Stanojevic from the Timočka Buna initiative, which collaborated with Romanian partners on the preparation of the letter.

The draft Spatial Plan and the Strategic Impact Assessment Report are expected within twelve months of the Government’s decision, followed by a public review of at least 30 days and a public hearing.

Serbia Zijin Mining d.o.o. Bor

Zijin Mining

Čukaru Peki

Malka Golaja

UNESCO

Felix Romuliana

Timočka Buna Initiative

Martin Stanojević

Spatial Plan of Special Purpose Are for future Cukaru Peki and Malka Golaja complex