The project of building a new smelter and sulfuric acid plant in copper mining company Bor has entered the final stage. As expected, mechanical assembly of the plant will be completed until December, followed by cold and hot testing, then this operation will be introduced into the production process.
“The project is in the final, the so-called “before commission” stage. It is planned that mechanical equipment completion would be completed by the end of the year and to begin heating and hot testing”, says the project director for building a new smelter and sulfuric acid plant in MSB Bor Dragan Marinkovic.
According to him, the project involves a lot of contractors and subcontractors, the main contractor is a Canadian company SNC Lavalin, and most important subcontractors are Finnish company Ototek for the construction of a new annealing furnaces and Energoprojekt Belgrade who is in charge for the construction works.
Marinkovic added that Energoprojekt hired a large number of local companies as subcontractors on the parts of the project, which ensured that much of the money predicted for project remain in Serbia.
“At the site there are more than 700 workers daily, who are directly engaged in the construction and assembly works. In addition, there are always experts in charge for logistics, supervision, management and safety of workers, which is why there were not almost even minor injuries of workers”, emphasizes Marinkovic.
Profit is manifold – environmental, economic and commercial, stand out in MSB Bor.
“We will increase the capacity of the furnace. The line, which now runs can produce a maximum of 40 thousand tons of copper cathodes per year, and projected capacity of new smelter is 80 thousand tons per year. The capacity of sulfuric acid plant also increases from the current 100 thousand tons to 400 thousand tons per year”, Marinkovic points out.
New smelter and sulfuric acid plant are of great importance not only for MSB Bor, the municipality of Bor and Timok Region, but also for the whole of Serbia because, in addition to increase in production, this project provides greater revenue in the central budget and new jobs.
“The most important certainly is the environmental part because emissions of sulfur dioxide will be reduced to a minimum by the commissioning of the new smelter, and Bor and the environment will no longer be a black spot on the ecological map of Europe”, said Marinkovic, adding that the citizens of Bor and the surrounding villages will again be able to breathe clean, unpolluted air.
