Prime Minister Nicolae Ciuca declared on Thursday, in Alba Iulia, that the Ministry of Economy is analyzing the situation at Cupru Min Abrud, where the extracted raw material is exported, as there is no copper concentrate processing facility in Romania.
"Our country has significant mineral resources. Unfortunately, at the moment, the resources are being exported and we are losing what we all know and we are aware that it is the biggest benefit, namely the added value," the head of the Executive told a news conference, when asked what are the long-term plans for Cupru Min Abrud, a company that exploits the Rosia Poieni deposit.
Nicolae Ciuca spoke about the "inability" to be able to process these resources in our country. "It does not bring us practically the benefit that could be much more substantial through the existence or investments in terms of the processing of mineral resources," the Prime Minister said.
According to the head of Government, Cupru Min is one of the topics discussed at the level of the Executive. "It is an issue under analysis at the level of the Ministry of Economy and when the analysis is completed we will discuss what is to be achieved in practice," said Nicolae Ciuca.
A month ago, the Minister of Economy, Florin Spataru, was saying, also in Alba Iulia, that solutions must be found so that the copper concentrate from Rosia Poieni can be processed in Romania or, possibly, in another country of the European Union.
Asked by journalists if such a plant could be built in Apuseni Mountains, the minister replied that "there is no concrete project".
"It does not seem normal to me that this raw material, this copper concentrate that we extract from Romania, be processed elsewhere, taking into account the fact that, at European level, we need this copper. And then we have to find solutions at European level so that the processing can take place in Romania or somewhere in the European Union. That is why we started these discussions with the European Commission to see what the financing solutions are for ensuring such a facility," said Spataru.
This is not the first time that the possibility that what is extracted from the Rosia Poieni deposit, where 60% of Romania's copper reserves are located, be processed in the country and no longer be sold, especially in China in recent years, only in the form of dry copper concentrate.
In 2017, the then Minister of Economy, Mihai Fifor, said during a visit to Abrud that the authorities wanted to stop selling "just the ore" but to "develop it in the area", naming as a possible place for the establishment of a metallurgical plant in the town of Zlatna, in the Apuseni Mountains.
Cupru Min, a company subordinated to the Ministry of Economy, has as main object of activity the exploitation and delivery in specific forms of resources/reserves of copper ore from the Rosia Poieni mining perimeter. The concentrate extracted by Cupru Min is from a porphyry-type deposit, which, in addition to copper, also contains other metals. AGERPRES
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