Possible new Canadian investment in RTB Bor

RTB Bor (Photo: rtb.rs)

The Canadian ambassador to Serbia, Philip Pinnington, visited on Tuesday (20 October 2015) the Mining and Smelter Basin (RTB) Bor and the new copper smelter which was built with the help of Canada and the Serbian government, pointing out on that occasion that new investments in RTB Bor were possible.

Starting November 1st, the new smelter will be producing 240 tonnes of copper from the anode per day while also reducing the emission of harmful gases thanks to a modern technology in use.

- Canada is a mining country, and we are already present in this region because a lot of Canadian companies operate in the mining industry here, engaging in activities ranging from geological exploration to mining, so I am sure there will be some new investments as well. Because a potential definitely exists - the Canadian ambassador said after touring the new metallurgical facilities in Bor.

RTB Bor General Manager Blagoje Spaskovski underlined that in the past five or six years, no other place in Serbia had obtained an investment as big as Bor had got.

The new smelter and sulfuric acid plant were built by Canada's SNC Lavalin and its subcontractor - Outotec from Finland, which is also the owner of autogenous flash smelting technology called Otokumpu.

Monitoring of all the works carried out by Canadians and Finns, as well as those entrusted to Energoprojekt, was done by the Faculty of Civil Engineering from Belgrade. Construction of new pyrometallurgical facilities in Bor cost EUR 251 million.