Serbia's RTB Bor eyes formal completion of new smelting unit on Dec 23

In a separate statement, the Serbian government said the commissioning of the new equipment will mark the next stage in the development of RTB Bor.

Works on the new smelting and sulphuric acid units at RTB Bor - co-financed through a 135 million euro ($165.5 million) loan from Export Development Canada, officially kicked off in June 2011.

The design, engineering, and project management of the project was carried out by Canada’s SNC Lavalin.

The contractor's mandate included a new state-of-the-art flash furnace, new hoods, evaporative cooling chambers, a new off-gas cooling and cleaning and 1830 million-tonne-per-day sulphuric acid plant, bulk storage tanks, as well as a waste effluent treatment and disposal systems.

The upgrades were designed to boost the smelter’s potential output to 80,000 million tonnes per year of copper from 30,000 million, data from SNC Lavalin's website indicated.

Based in eastern Serbia, RTB Bor has been in operation since 1903 and is one of the region’s foremost producers of copper and precious metals.

($=0.8155 euro)