Can Serbia get out from the economic crisis thanks to the natural resources that has?
Throughout the country the dozens of locations are explored, and the most interested to investors are gold and lithium. Ministry of mining annonced simplified procedures for mining investments in Serbia.
Looking for copper and gold, drills work, hundreds of meters below earth are being sought for the ore. Therefore from research to exploitation the debt that can last up to five, six years. Among those who research in the area of the Timok region is also Mining and Smelting Basin Bor.
“Wealth of Serbia in the mining part is very large, I think it’s worth a few billion dollars certainly in double-digit number, unfortunately, it cannot quickly come up to the money because researches lasting for certain time, and then planning, exploitation and after that selling of these products whether those made of metal, coal or non-metals”, says Blagoje Spasovski from RTB Bor.
Wealth of Serbia could be in the coming years, according to estimates of the relevant ministry of mining and natural resources, the new asset in the fight against unemployment and the economic development of the country. Gold reserves are the largest in eastern Serbia, lithium around Loznica, Kragujevac, Preljine. As for nickel most of it there is around Arandjelovac, Topola, on Mokra Gora, and near Aleksinac are the biggest reserves of oil shale. In this area 1.5 billion euros is collected yearly and estimates shows that the possibility of collection is to 6 billion euros.
“If some very important countries such as the USA, Germany recognize the place for mining exploitation, Serbia for many years does not have money that can, nowhere have been carried to the end, detailed only in the past ten years. What is oil to Arabia, Iraq, Qatar and the gas to Russia that are metal ores for Serbia “, said minister for mining Milan Bačević.
Domestic companies are not the only ones that investigate mineral resources. In the past few years large multinational companies have invested more than 50 million dollars in geological exploration in Serbia. In the government state that they are ready to cooperate but that also want to protect uncontrolled export of mineral resources and uncontrolled exploitation.
The area of Kosovo is rich with ores and it is one of the problems about which official Priština and Belgrade fight a huge battle. Only according to World Bank’s estimates, mineral reserves are worth more than 13 billion euros. In the area of the Trepča mine is estimated to have coal for the next 200 years. In this area there are also great reserves of lead, zinc, nickel and cobalt.
Source; Serbia Energy mining desk
