May 5 (SeeNews) - Zijin Bor Copper, the Serbian unit of China's Zijin Mining Group, has produced 5,828 tonnes of copper concentrate at the Veliki Krivelj flotation plant in the first quarter of 2020, up from 5,064 tonnes in the like period of last year, the director of the plant, Dragan Peric, said.
A total of 2.519 million tonnes of copper ore were processed at the flotation plant in the first quarter, compared with 2.059 million tonnes in the first three months of 2019, Peric said in an interview published in the latest edition of Zijin Bor Copper's corporate newsletter Kolektiv.
"The high production level drives down costs, so now the cost of ore processing is $3.63 (3.35 euro) per tonne without amortisation, or $3.86 with amortisation," Peric said.
The Veliki Krivelj flotation plant currently processes between 28,000 and 29,000 tonnes of copper ore per day, he added.
The flotation plant is part of the Veiliki Krivelj open-pit mine, one of the largest copper deposits in Serbia with estimated 560.5 million tonnes of ore grading 0.33% copper.
The Chinese group injected $350 million in the capital of Serbian copper mining and smelting company RTB Bor in December 2018, acquiring majority ownership, and renamed it to Zijin Bor Copper.
($ = 0.922734 euro)