“The company engages in mineral resource exploration activities, and based on the approval of the Ministry of Energy, intends to establish a mine upon completion of exploration.”
This is stated in the notes to the 2023 financial report of Rio Tinto Exploration Dunav doo. Incidentally, in addition to Rio Sava Exploration, which exclusively deals with the Jadar project, this is the second company of this global giant registered in Serbia. And they are independent of each other. Unlike Rio Sava, which was founded in the early 2000s, this other one was registered in April 2018.
Its activity code is mineral exploitation, production of mineral fertilizers and chemicals.
The owner of this company, according to the notes to the financial report, is Rio Tinto Minerals Development Limited from Great Britain.
It is, in turn, owned by Rio Tinto European holding LTD UK. The ultimate ownership leads to Rio Tinto PLC, listed on the London Stock Exchange, the notes further state.
On the company’s website, it is stated that Rio Tinto Exploration Dunav currently does not have permits for mineral exploration.
Accordingly, it does not carry out any field activities.
“However, we are considering all potential opportunities for exploring copper deposits both in Serbia and in the wider geographical region.” The website also adds that they “as a non-operating partner in cooperation with Zijin Mining, are participating in mineral exploration in certain parts of eastern Serbia.
What Rio Tinto Says Dimitrios Kastis, from Rio Tinto Exploration Dunav, explains to Forbes Serbia what this cooperation means in practice.
“Our local team in Serbia established a partnership in 2015, in accordance with relevant Serbian regulations, first with Reservoir Minerals, and later with Nevsun Resources. Then Zijin took over Nevsun in December 2018. We did this to explore gold in three permitted exploration areas in the wider Bor area,” he says.
Kastis adds that mineral exploration worldwide has a very low success rate and less than one percent of exploration work leads to the opening of a new mine.
“Projects with Zijin and its affiliates have not identified additional areas of interest that would compel us to apply for a new mineral exploration permit in the near future. Also, we have not applied for any other mineral exploration permit in Serbia or the wider region.”
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Business Results According to the financial report, Rio Tinto Exploration Dunav had only two employees in 2023.
The last changes to the capital took place in November of this year when the company increased its capital share, which is currently 423.2 million dinars. Unlike 2022, when this company had some business activity, i.e, 10.36 million dinars in operating income, in the previous year they did not exist.
On the other hand, total revenue was only 310,000 dinars, while last year it was 10.9 million dinars. Net loss decreased compared to 2022 from 42.6 million to 37.8 million dinars.
Copper Competition According to the register maintained by the Ministry of Mining and Energy, around 30 companies have exploration rights for copper in Serbia. Most of them were registered in Serbia from 2015 onwards, which is a result of a change in the regulations governing this area. The locations they explore are, as expected, in the municipalities in eastern Serbia – mainly Bor, Zaječar, Boljevac, Majdanpek. In addition to copper, most of them also have exploration rights for silver and gold.
Although it might seem at first glance that there are many of them, an analysis of ownership shows that large multinational companies actually own several subsidiaries in Serbia. As Forbes Serbia has already written, Canadian Mundoro, either on its own or in co-ownership with Australian BHP, owns several companies with exploration rights in eastern Serbia.
Among them are Artemis Ventures, Stara planina Resources, Nova planina Resources, Voyager Ventures, Southwest minerals, as well as Valdor Resources…
There are also the owners of RTB Bor, namely the Chinese companies Zijin Copper and Zijin Mining, which own several exploration licenses. Companies associated with them, such as Balkan Exploration and Mining, also have licenses. This connection is confirmed by a document from the Competition Protection Commission from which the Canadian company Ontario INC, in 2020, requested and obtained a merger permit. This company, as stated in the document, is controlled by Zijin Mining Group Co, registered in China. Also, although the formal owner of Tilva doo, a company that has several licenses for copper exploration, is a company registered in the British Virgin Islands, BIRN once wrote that the ultimate owner of this company is also the aforementioned Chinese giant Zijin.
Who else is looking for copper Apart from these, copper in Serbia is also being explored by Konstantin Resources, whose owner is registered in Australia, Zlatna reka Resources, behind which is the British Betoota holding, Electrum discovery, whose owner is the eponymous company from Canada.
There is also the company Adriatic Metals, whose owner is, also, the eponymous company, registered in Great Britain. There are almost no domestic companies that have companies registered for the exploration and exploitation of ores, at least when it comes to copper. On the other hand, several companies are owned by individuals.
For example, Balkan phosphate is 100% owned by Dragan Janković, and Copper Co doo by Dragan Milošević. Zoran Petrović and Predrag Lukić are co-owners of the Belgrade-based company Calico Metals. Mineral grupa, also registered in Belgrade, is owned by Slobodanka Lazarov. All of these companies have licenses from the relevant ministry for exploration rights in Eastern Serbia. Almost all of these companies fall into the category of micro-enterprises, and have only one or two employees.
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Source: Forbes Srbija, Photo: EPA-EFE:MICK TSIKAS