Zijin Requests Green Permit for Excavation of 1.65 Million Tons of Copper a Year at Cukaru Peki Mine

At the end of June, Zijin Mining filed to the Ministry of Environmental Protection the request for deciding on the necessity of the environmental impact assessment study of the project of the exploitation of ore from the copper and gold site Cukaru Peki (Upper Zone 2).

The copper and gold site Cukaru Peki, Upper Zones 1 and 2, is located close to the village of Brestovac near Bor.

The request pertains to the underground exploitation of the copper ore with a capacity of 5,000 tons a day, that is, 1.65 million tons a year.

The excavation will be done based on the Study of the Copper and Gold Resources and Reserves at the Cukaru Peki Site, Upper Zones 1 and 2, which was prepared last summer by the Institute for Mining and Metallurgy, and according to which, the Upper Zone 2 contains balance reserves of 15,585,343 tons of wet ore.

According to the project, the plan is for the excavation of the site to be done to the level of the cote k-380 m, that is, up to a depth of around 7,600 m2.

All the mining processes will lean on the Main Mining Project of the Exploitation of Ore from the Copper and Gold Site Cukaru Peki – Upper Zone, which was also prepared by the Institute for Mining and Metallurgy, in 2021.

The document also says that the investor plans to deposit the copper ore at the existing tailings pond, whereby its superelevation will be done, so as to enable the depositing of 1,950,000 m3 of the ore and 500,000 m3 of the tailings. As an explanation of this solution, the lower capacities of the flotation compared to the exploitation capacities of the pit are cited, so the copper ore will be deposited at said tailings pond until a new flotation is built, which will later use the deposited ore, which is planned for 2026.

B. P.

Serbia Zijin Mining d.o.o. Bor

Institut za rudarstvo i metalurgiju Bor

Serbia Zijin Mining

Institute for Mining and Metallurgy

Čukaru Peki mine

underground copper exploitation