Serbia has hundreds of billions of dollars in natural resources

It has been estimated that Serbia has hundreds of billions of dollars in natural resources, and it could significantly help the accelerated economic development, Serbia’s Minister of Resources, Mining and Spatial Planning Milan Bacevic said in his interview to the International Radio Serbia.

With regards to natural resources, especially ores, Serbia is one of the richest countries in Europe, but unfortunately that wealth has not been adequately valorized so far, Bacevic pointed. He has reminded that in Middle Ages the Serbian population was intensively involved in mining, wile in the 21st century there is resistance to geological exploration, which should set the conditions for the development of mining. And the whole thing is wrapped in the so-called concern for the environment protection. According to Bacevic, the living environment is already alarmingly devastated in the municipality of Trstenik and along the banks of the Morava river, but not due to geological research, for which the Serbian Nickel company has shown interest, as a subsidiary of the renowned European Nickel enterprise. Namely, that kind of research uses clean and safe technologies, as widely utilized in the centers in Greece, Turkey, Spain, Norway and other countries.

In our country, the greatest interest has been expressed for the exploration of gold and lithium. Fortunately, there is lithium in Serbia, but more detailed geological research is required to establish the amount of reserves and economic feasibility of exploitation, our collocutor stressed. At the moment, there is research going on in the vicinity of the Jadar valley, while the companies from China, Germany and Australia are willing to joint the project.

Minister Bacevic has announced the revival of the mining-metallurgical compound “Trepca” and significant investments in the opening of new mines, the construction of a smelting plant in Zvecan and a power plant in northern Kosmet. Several days ago the ministry has received the draft of the contract between the US consortium New Generation Power and the Serbian management of “Trepca”, and certain details need to be cleared in order to ensure the legal protection for that investment. The arrival of American partners to Trepca is expected soon, in order to make the contract official. According to Bacevic, it is of vital interest for the inhabitants of northern Kosmet, and wider, to get that enterprise in operation in the area with Serb population, which is not to say that at some point in the future there will be no cooperation with the southern part of “Trepca”, because the division is artificial. The south is controlled by the self-proclaimed Kosovo authorities, the mines have been flooded and their privatization agency has sold six companies that used to be within the “Trepca” compound. The NGP partners have been informed about the state of affairs and on the ownership structure in the northern part. Previously, in talks with the potential investors, it was concluded that American companies would have easiest time enabling the realization of the project and its legal protection, thus the selection of the American consortium as the strategic partner, Minister Milan Bacevic concluded in his interview.

Source Balkans

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