Zijin prepares offer for Freeport-McMoRan – Chinese company looking to buy out American part of mine near Bor?

The Chinese company Zijin, the owner of the upper zone of the future underground copper and gold site Cukaru Peki, has prepared an offer for the American company Freeport-McMoRan, which has 60% exploration rights in the upper zone of the site, for the buyout of their share, as Vecernje Novosti learns unofficially.

The plan of Zijin, which is also the strategic partner of RTB Bor, is to invest nearly half a billion dollars in the beginning of the exploitation of the upper part of the Cukaru Peki site near Bor, where reserves of a million tons of cooper and close to 70 tons of gold have been detected.

The Chinese company is the only owner of the upper zone of the Cukaru Peki site. However, the exploitation of the lower part of the site will be a much more difficult job for Zijin. According to the preliminary estimates, it contains reserves of 15 million tons of copper and as much as 300 tons of gold. With a share of 60%, Freeport-McMoRan is the majority owner of the exploration rights in this section.

It needs to be said that, according to the contract, if the lower section of the Cukaru Peki site is exploited, which is an investment estimated at billions of dollars, Zijin would acquire a 46% share, whereas the American company would be left with 54% of the ownership. This means that the Chinese company has two options – either to sign an agreement on strategic partnership with Freeport-McMoRan or to try to buy out their share in the richest copper and gold site in the world.

Zijin Mining Group Co Beijing

Serbia Zijin Copper doo Bor

Serbia Zijin Mining d.o.o. Bor

Zijin

Freeport McMoRan

RTB Bor

Cukaru Peki

Cukaru Peki site

copper

gold

copper site

gold site

geological explorations

copper exploitation

gold exploitation