Copper production starts in Cerovo - RTB Bor invests EUR 30 million in copper mine reopening

The Assembly of the Mining Smelter Basin (RTB) Bor has decided to invest EUR 30 million from its own resources in the reopening of RTB Bor's Cerovo copper mine.

Chairman of the Assembly Sasa Perisic told Tanjug news agency that the Assembly of RTB Bor had decided to reactivate Cerovo copper mine by using the money from its own budget and the loans it had taken out.

- It all depends on the Privatization Agency, which must approve the investment of EUR 30 million - he explained and added that the reason for that was the status of RTB Bar, which was still in a restructuring process.

The overall ore reserves in Cerovo copper mine are estimated at 320 million tonnes, containing 0.33 percent of copper.

- We are not giving up because Cerovo's prospects will be confirmed in the following period. This year we expect 2.1 million tonnes of ore to be extracted, whereas the production in 2013 should reach 5.5 million tonnes - said Perisic.

Cerovo copper mine was closed in 2002 because of a low price of copper in the global market. The estimates are that about 18 tonnes of gold could be extracted from this mine over the next two years.