BELGRADE (Serbia), September 18 (SeeNews) – China's Zijin Mining Group is expected to double the total output of Serbian copper mining and smelting company RTB Bor in the next three years, Serbia's energy minister Aleksandar Antic said on Tuesday.
Following the double increase of RTB Bor's output, Zijin will increase production by between three and four times in the following six years, Antic said in a statement.
Serbia's government said on September 1 it picked Zijin as a strategic partner in RTB Bor. Zijin will invest $1.26 billion (1.1 billion euro) and will hold a 65% stake in RTB Bor.
"It is expected that after reaching the designated production capacity, approximately 120,000 tonnes of copper, 1.45 tonnes of gold and 10.6 tonnes of silver can be produced from the mines annually," Zijin said in a filing with the Hong Kong Stock Exchange earlier this month.
In 2017, RTB Bor produced 700 kg of gold, 5 tonnes of silver and 43,000 tonnes of copper cathode, its director general Blagoje Spaskovski said in January.
($ = 0.85588 euro)