Canadian company Nevsun plans to start exploitation of a copper and gold mine in the Cukaru Peki region near Bor by the year end. Cukaru Peki is thought to be potentially one of the richest copper and gold mines in the world.
“The feasibility study is supposed to be finished soon, after which, in the fourth quarter of 2017, we are going to start preliminary activities on opening of the mine”, says Cliff Davis, CEO of Nevsun.
“Our plan is to develop this pit quickly and to make it fully operational by 2021”, Davis adds.
According to the preliminary feasibility study, the value of the copper and gold deposits in the Cukaru Peki is estimated to be worth around 7 billion USD. The study also says that the costs of making this mine operation could go up to 500 million USD. Also, the study unequivocally states that this could potentially be the richest global deposit of copper and gold.
The study goes on to say that the Serbian state authorities would get 5% of the net revenue generated from the exploitation of this mine on the account of the mineral raw material fee, as well as an additional 15% on the account of tax.
Experts say there are very few companies that can handle such a big project that is opening a mine in Cukaru Peki. Rio Tinto, one of the biggest mining corporations in the world, is one of such companies. So, it would not come as a surprise if Nevsun were to cooperate with Rio Tinto on opening of the Cukaru Peki mine. The mine supposedly has 1.7 million tons of copper and 98 tons of gold where just one mother lode contains 50.3 grams of gold per ton.
(Vecernje Novosti, 26. 02. 2017)
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