Chinese mining company Zijin (Zijin Mining doo Bor) is seeking a “green” permit for new copper and gold mining at the Chukara Peki Mine near Bor, which is estimated at 3.8 billion US dollars (USD).
According to the request for a decision on the need for an environmental impact assessment of the project, and as reported by Ekapia, 16 megatons (Mt) of copper and 333 tons of gold lie in the lower zone of the Cukaru Peki mine near the pine.
In the document prepared by the Belgrade-based Dvoper d.o.o. and the Mining Institute and submitted for decision to the Ministry of Environmental Protection, it is recalled that the project of the upper ore zone was completed and put into operation at the end of June 2021.
The planned development of mining activities and the construction of supporting facilities of the Cukaru Peki mine – Lower deposit will require the relocation of the entire Ostrelj settlement and parts of the Slatina settlement.
It is stated that the lower ore zone of the mine consists of porphyry deposits with an ore body of enormous proportions and raw materials in which the copper content of the ore exceeds 0.30 percent in the amount of 2,049.55 Mt, with an amount of copper metal of 15.70 Mt, an average copper content in ore of 0.77 percent and accompanying metal gold in the amount of 332.64 t, average gold content of 0.16 grams per ton.
For this investment, a Memorandum of Understanding between Zijin and the Serbian Ministry of Mining was signed in China at the beginning of September.
The ore processing plant in the First Phase of mine development will be in the immediate vicinity of the mine’s export shaft. The construction of a flotation plant for the second phase in the development of the mine is planned at a location about one kilometer away from the deposit towards the village of Slatina, and five to seven kilometers to the northeast, the construction of a new flotation tailings pond is planned in the area of the Oštrelj settlement.
The final product of the mine will be copper concentrate. It is noted that the quality of the copper concentrate is good (21 percent) with a gold content of 2.42 g/t (grams per ton) to 4.41 g/t.
