Chinese Zijin repays all debts of RTB Bor – Over USD 200 million paid

The Chinese company Zijin has repaid absolutely all the debts of RTB Bor defined within the Pre-Packaged Reorganization Plan (PPRP), and the company entered 2019 free of this burden.

– The Chinese company Zijin has repaid all the debts of RTB Bor from the PPRP. The strategic partner paid more than USD 200 million practically in a single day and RTB, that is, Zijin Bor Copper DOO, is now positioned in the market as one of, I believe, the most important European producers of copper in the future, without any burden – said Serbian Minister of Mining and Energy Aleksandar Antic.

As the minister said, all the liabilities toward the state budget related to the mining fee and other fees and compensations have been paid and the liabilities toward Elektroprivreda Srbije (EPS) for the power delivered have been settled, as have been those toward local banks, including the Development Fund. The credit of EDC Bank for the foundry and the new sulfuric acid factory has been fully repaid. In total, RSD 11,210,000,000 was paid to state institutions, whereas EUR 23 million and USD 42.2 million was paid to the Canadian bank.

– RTB Bor has no more debts. Five or six years ago, when we started addressing this problem, they amounted to over a billion US dollars. We now have a strategic partner, Zijin, which was obliged to pay USD 350 million in order for the closing to take place. With this payment, the company acquired a 63% stake in RTB Bor – Antic said.

According to him, once the cycle of Zijin’s activities in Serbia related to RTB and the Cukaru Peki project is finished, which, as he says, will take several years, Serbia will be the third biggest producer of copper in Europe with 200 to 250 thousand tons of copper a year.

– The importance of this is shown by the fact that mining makes up around 1% of the GDP at the moment. In a few years, copper alone will make up 5% of the state’s GDP – Aleksandar Antic said.

Serbia Zijin Copper doo Bor

Zijin Mining Group Co Beijing

Fond za razvoj Republike Srbije Niš

Akcionarsko društvo Elektroprivreda Srbije Beograd

Zijin China

RTB Bor

Zijin Bor Copper DOO

EDC Bank

Development Fund

Elektroprivreda Srbije

EPS

Aleksandar Antic

Pre Packaged Reorganization Plan

PPRP

RTB Bor credits

RTB Bor debts

production of copper in Serbia

Cukaru Peki site