Solving the ecological problem is one of the challenges that the new owner of Mining and Smelting Factory Basin Bor is about to face

The people of Bor want to breath in clean air as well

  • In the new buying and selling contract, the ecology, that is, the investment in the smelting plant that has to reduce the emission of sulfur-dioxide to a European level will represent a significant issue
  • From the national investment plan, 2 million euros were planned to be spent on the reparation of the dam with the 80 meters long collector, but a permanent solution would require building a new tunnel, which will amount to seven million euros

With the new auction for the privatization of the Mining and Smelting Basin Bor (starting at the price of 340 million euros), the buyer was expected to offer at least 180 million dollars investment. Up until now, participation in the auction has been announced by the Russian investment fond Bejzik the element of the magnate Oleg Deripaska and a Srbian businessman, owner of the Cyprian company East Point, Zoran Drakulic. Solving of the ecological problem will be especially challenging for the new owner, which is of vital importance for all inhabitants of Bor and the towns around.

SULFUR – DIOXID – AN ONGOING THREAT

In the new buying and selling contract, the ecology, that is, the investment in the smelting factory that has to reduce the emission of sulfur-dioxide to a European level will represent a significant issue. Until this is resolved, the citizens of Bor are forced to continue living in ecologically unacceptable conditions. In two measuring sites in Bor, reading of content of sulfur-dioxide is performed daily and results are forwarded to the smelting factory every fifteen minutes, which reacts in a case of an accident. The level of emission from the chimney of smelting factory depends on the production and microclimatic conditions, and even though the level of production is reduced, accidents still happen. When the concentration of sulfur-dioxide accedes a thousand micrograms per cubic meter the production is reduced, but this does not solve the problem. Up until now, about fifteen persons from the lowest to highest ranks have been held legally responsible, because the plan of action for protection from the pollution precisely determines the responsibilities of each employee.

The management of MSB Bor admits that the planned investment in the smelting plant was 2,5 million euros, but last year’s investments amount to only a million euros. According to the data available to the authorized inspections, the raised quantity of sulfur-dioxide in the atmosphere is regular in Bor – acceding is five to six times larger compared to allowed maximum rates. Even though the allowed quantity of sulfur dioxide is 150 micrograms per one cubic meter, Bor often measures a concentration of 1000 micrograms, and only when the concentration accedes 500 micrograms a technologist reacts, because that particular quantity is considered to be alarming. When a measuring station shows that the air contains 500 micrograms of sulfur dioxide the inspectors react by appealing to the polluter to lessen the emission of harmful gasses and then MSB Bor should stop the reactor. But, the copper collection operates on a principle of melting that cannot be stopped entirely, but a so-called short-term interruption of production is applied to trigger a loss of temperature. In fact, every production process triggers direct polluting. In Bor, headquarters holds a meeting every month, consisting of different experts and representatives of local authorities; inspectors and management who view the reports of measuring harmful substances in the air. On one of these meetings, the fact was presented which states that an increasing number of people suffering from tumors has been registered in the last three years, but science states that a longer period of time is needed to monitor the causes of illnesses in order to prove that there is a link between the pollution and death rates. Yet, it has been determined that the sulfur badly influences bronchial asthma. The main problem is, as the experts warn us, the old technology of the smelting plant (it is fifty tears old), but we should also be pointing out the fact that almost 15 percent of copper in the world is manufactured using the same technology as we can find in Bor.

For the last fifteen years already the investments in ecology were reduced to a minimum. Up until the nineties we had a functional system of emissions and its reversed processes, except for the gas phase that was even then the same, but with entering the economical blockage, MSB paid its price, for we had complete imported technology, but when we could not import the parts we faced a problem, since the parts started to break done one by one and remained beyond repair. As soon as one spare part was needed, the whole machine would be stopped – says the ecology manager of MSB Bor Zvonimir Milijic.

WHAT TO DO WITH SULFURIC ACID

What is the degree of pollution that the new owner will face is to be known more precisely after the publication of the paper about the documented polluting. At this time the professors of the Mining and Geological Faculty of Belgrade, in cooperation with German experts are working on this paper, which should provide data about the sanitation of barren fields, water, air… The experts will estimate how much time and money is needed to undo the damage. The coordinator of environmental protection in the smelting plant, Toplica Marjanovic reminds us of the fact that the wire which supplies the consumer with electrical energy is made of copper, manufactured in MSB Bor. When will Bor have clean air? “When there is no more hunger in Serbia”, Marjanovic concludes. Experts remind us that the concentration of at least 30 percent of sulfur is of great importance in the process of copper manufacturing, and such a concentration of sulfur represents a problem. In MSB Bor there are factories of sulfuric acid that collect the sulfur and turn it into acid. Due to old technology only 60 percent of sulfur can be used, while the 40 percent of sulfur is released into the atmosphere and there is where lies the answer to the question why Bor is polluted. Old technological equipment is used, but there is also inability to use sulfuric acid to produce artificial fertilizers. Factories of artificial fertilizers in Serbia are mainly closed, so the sulfuric acid from the factory MSB Bor cannot be transported anywhere. Toplica Marjanovic claims that sulfur is the problem everywhere, because the sulfuric acid is not used as much as it should be. He appeals to the state to create conditions for the development of agriculture primarily, what would enable broader use of artificial fertilizers. The acid from Bor is now stored in big reservoirs in Sabac and Prahovo. “The production is stopped when there is no market for acid. Last year, we were not working for 635 hours which is about ten percent of lost time because of acid”, states Marjanovic. The buyer of MSB Bor will be obliged to protect the environment from the waters from the mines. Now, flowing of mine waters into rivers is stopped with a system of protective peripheral canals and hydraulic pumps, the peripheral canals are re-pumped from the Cerovo mine to the barren land Krivelj. In the past year, more than 13.000 euros were invested into the replacement of the 14 kilometer long pipeline. The Krivelj River has been protected, but the danger from pouring out into the barren fields is still of great degree. If that would happen, we would see the evidence of damage which was done stretching as far as the Black Sea. That is why sanitization of the dams should be predicted by the strategy of environmental protection of Bor and Majdanpek, which is to be offered by our government. The collector beneath the Krivelj River , that had been damaged ten years ago, has been recently repaired, but only partially. From the National Investment Plan two million euros have been planned to be spent on the repair of the dam with the 80 meter long collector, but for the permanent solution to this problem a new tunnel should be built, that will coast about seven million euros. No matter how big the sums for the protection of the environment are, we should not forget that in the past several decades great accidents happened. The biggest one took place in the sixties, when barren fields were protruded and the harmful matter spread through the Timok valley and the Bor River to the Danube. Bor was flooded at that time. The prognosis is that from that time up to the present day, from 2000 to 4000 acres of land are still contaminated.

4.5 million tons of ore produced

4.5 million tons of ore has been produced in 2006 by the MSB Bor, including copper which amounts to 25 to 30 percent of the overall production. 40.000 tons of cathode copper were also manufactured, and according to Milan Dejanovski, the vice president of marketing of MSB Bor, 13.500 tons of cathode copper was produced from their own mines, and about 26.000 tons of cathodes has been manufactured by refining someone else’s concentrates. 207.000 of copper concentrate was produced in the past year, as well as more than 70.000 tons of sulfuric acid. The mine cannot operate with that kind of production, especially if the price of copper drops in the world market – last year, the price of one ton of copper was 8.000 dollars, while in 2002 a ton of copper was sold for a price of 1.460 dollars. 300 tons of gold and one ton of silver were produced in this smelting factory by refining copper.