China's Zijin Mining Group has built new and advanced production facilities in Serbia and set new standards for environment-friendly mining in the Balkan nation.
A landmark moment in the China-Serbia comprehensive strategic partnership was the arrival of the Zijin Mining Group, which became a major shareholder of Serbia's RTB Bor in December 2018. Zijin's aim was to turn RTB Bor into a high-tech, green mining company.
The city of Bor is located in eastern Serbia, approximately 180 kilometers away from the capital Belgrade. 120 years ago, abundant copper resources were discovered here, leading to the establishment of the Serbian state-owned miner RTB Bor. The once small mountain village rapidly developed into a city.
By the early 2000s, extensive mismanagement had pushed the company to the verge of bankruptcy. Years of losses resulted in job cuts and a significant outflow of young and middle-aged people who had made up the bulk of the labor force here.
The implementation of the Belt and Road Initiative changed everything.
In 2018, Zijin signed an agreement with the Serbian government to acquire a 63 percent stake in RTB Bor and obtain partial mining rights in Serbia. After the Chinese company took over, it turned the company from loss to profit in just six months. Currently, the output value of the company accounts for nearly 3.5 percent of Serbia's GDP.
"We carried out a systematic technological transformation, utilizing Zijin's management and technology for comprehensive upgrade. The copper mine has developed from its original production capacity of only 40,000 tons to now exceeding 100,000 tons," said Chen Jinghe, Executive Chairman of Zijin Mining.
Vera is responsible for recruitment in the company's human resources department. She says that since 2019, in addition to retaining over 5,000 existing employees, the company has also hired over 3,000 new employees, most of them young. Taking into account upstream and downstream enterprises that do business with the company, around 13,000 jobs have been created.
"Our average salary is around 130,000 (Serbian dinar - about 1,192.54 U.S. dollars), which is very good for this part of Serbia and Serbia actually as a whole country. I think it's around 50 percent more than average salary in Serbia," said Vera.
The involvement of Chinese companies has not only brought employment opportunities but also brought "green" changes. In the past, the air in Bor was pungent and the vicinity of the mining site was characterized by barren mountains and clouds of dust.
After the arrival of the Chinese company, completely different mining practices were adopted, as the company implemented a strategy of "simultaneous mining and restoration" to protect the geographical landscape and minimize dust emissions.
"The belt that you can see around us, actually behind us, is the transportation belt of the ore from the underground mine which is below us. It's long, around two kilometers, and a very important thing here is that it's fully enclosed and fully covered in order to prevent the air dust emission. That's one of the things that Zijin brought one of the what say technologies that Zijin brought in Serbian mining industry to cover all the transportation routes that can emit some potentially hazardous material to the air," said Dusan, an environmental engineer.
At the copper smelting plant, vice plant manager Saska Tasic explained that the project has invested a total of 300 million U.S. dollars in the renovation of the old smeltery. The chimneys no longer emit black smoke, completely resolving the long-standing pollution issues that plagued Bor. The new system has also achieved 100 percent treatment and recycling of industrial wastewater, minimizing environmental damage.
"Through investing in the entire project, we have successfully resolved the pollution issues that have plagued Bor and its surrounding areas for decades. The belief that lucid waters and lush mountains are invaluable assets has become our motto," she said.
Chinese company sets new standards for environment-friendly mining in Serbia
