Chileans and Americans eye smelter in Bor

(Photo: rtb.rs)

Construction of new smelter and sulfuric acid plant in Bor has caught the attention of the world's two most power mining corporations - Chile's Codelco and USA's Freeport.

Representatives of these companies have talked with the management of the Mining and Smelter Basin (RTB) Bor about the possibility of boosting the capacity of the new smelter from projected 80,000 to 100-110 thousand tonnes of copper per year.

RTB Bor CEO Blagoje Spaskovski told Tanjug news agency that the capacity of the new smelter could be raised if the projected quality of copper concentrate was increased from 22 to 26-28 percent of copper in the concentrate.

As he added, there is no other option as all the equipment for the new smelter has already arrived in Bor. According to him, RTB Bor is interested in boosting the capacity in this way, but a final decision must be made by the Serbian government.

The US company Freeport has recently discovered rich copper ore deposits in the vicinity of the Bor airport. If the company decides to open a mine in this location, the most cost-effective way to process the ore will be to do that in the Bor-based smelter.