Nigeria resumes mining in Zamfara state on improved security
Nigeria has lifted a ban on mining exploration in the northwestern state after a five-year suspension.
Reuters reports Romania will sell its biggest copper mine – Cupru Min SA Abrud – in an auction on March 26 after receiving bids from four companies.
Romania wants to sell 100% of the mine for a minimum of $80 million. The deposit holds about 60% of the European Union member’s copper reserves equal to roughly 900,000 tonnes.
The four bidders are Australia’s OZ Minerals, Dutch Dundee Holding, Canadian Roman Copper Corp. and Bulgarian Ellatzite Med Ad, the economics ministry said in a statement.
Cupru Min is based in Abrud, Alba County, Romania and operates the Roşia Poieni copper mine. The company says deposits amount to more than 1 billion tons with an average of 0.36% Cu and 1.8% S.
Copper production began in 1983 and the designed capacity of the mine is 9 million tons of ore extracted and processed per year with expansion to 15 million tons per year.
Image is courtesy of Cupru Min
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3 Comments
Dan Oancea
The copper deposit continues underground below the open pit – I used to work there in late 80s; we did some old fashioned underground exploration work and we pretty much prepared it for mining (winzes, adits). We experienced pretty serious water problems – not unexpected if you consider that you’re below the water table in a fissured porphyry deposit. Block caving might work for an underground copper mine in that specific location.
Alex Rapcea
There is one thing that I do not understand about all this….and of course, i do not know the “whole story” about this project. If this holds 60% of the Copper in the EU why sell it? Is there really no way of having Romania exploit the mine and then export copper into the EU? I keep on thinking that it would be more profitable. This is probably not feasible but why is that?
Dan Oancea
Have no answer for that. In a nutshell: The Romanian state has been reducing its involvement in mining for decades now. Generally speaking a state run company is usually less efficient than a private one; then there is the fact that they need capital to re-start & refurbish (modern mining & processing equipment to make it profitable as grades are somehow low; but as a bonus there is some molybdenum in there as well) the operation. Then there is the closure of the mine aspect as whoever wins it would have to pay for the enviro bill – for example I’ve learned that one of our former exploration galleries seeps lots of effluents (acid rock drainage) i.e. water laden with toxic substances in the environment. Closure of the mine would be done in a responsible manner according to EU standards. But as usual much of what happens there is governed by politics and higher interests …