2022年6月14日

Who are the main players in the ore exploration business in Serbia

A dozen companies based in Australia, Canada and China, through offshore companies and affiliates in Serbia, control about 90 percent of the territory in which the state has issued permits for ore mining.

在我国注册的大约100家公司获得了塞尔维亚矿石和金属探索的州许可证，他们进行测试的总面积覆盖5,673平方公里，这是Vojvodina四分之一的领域。

At first glance, it would be said that this is a business in which the competition is numerous. However, in reality, this business is mostly in the hands of only a dozen companies, mostly foreign, which, through affiliated companies, have exploration rights on approximately 90 percent of the territory where the possibilities for opening mines are being investigated.

塞尔维亚矿石勘探业务兴起的转折点是2015年，当时修改了采矿和地质研究法。2015年12月，塞尔维亚议会通过了上述法案的修正案，剥夺了地方当局颁发研究许可，并将其决定转移到采矿部。

The new rules have put investors and ore researchers in a much better position, as they “finished” the job at one address in Belgrade. Thus, for example, someone who intended to conduct field research spread over several municipalities no longer had to obtain a permit from each local government separately.

The serious possibility that the mentioned law will be changed was a strong enough signal to potential investors. In the months before the formal adoption of the law, several ore exploration companies were established, and this trend has continued in the coming years, according to data from the Business Registers Agency (APR), which BIRN analyzed.

Of the 30 leading companies in the area where ore is explored, 15 of them have been established since 2015. As of the end of January 2022, those companies had more than a 50 percent share in the total area where ores and minerals are explored in Serbia.

The often mentioned Rio Tinto is not on this list because they passed the research phase even earlier and were practically about to open the mine. There is speculation in the public that some of the companies listed below are “doing business” for Rio Tinto, but for now, everyone has denied those claims.

塞尔维亚矿石探索的相关公司网络

Who, in fact, are the key players in the ore exploration business in Serbia? Although permits are issued to individual companies that are registered as domestic in the APR, in some cases it is a kind of network of related companies that have the same ultimate owner. BIRN has already mentioned some of these companies in an article on ore exploration in protected areas.

大多数公司和外国男人agement and capital, which mainly comes from Canada, Australia and China.

在许多情况下，在塞尔维亚成立的公司的正式所有者是在许多情况下，包括英国维尔京群岛，马耳他，直布罗陀和卢森堡的公司。

此外，它们的特征是所有权结构和名称的频繁更改，因此以一个名称和所有者建立矿石勘探公司并不少见所有者。

In many cases, this type of company was founded by lawyers who were their formal owners and directors for a while, and then the ownership was transferred to companies from abroad.

以下是通过关联公司网络以及搜索矿石存款的领域，控制塞尔维亚大多数业务的领先公司的前十名列表。

1.澳大利亚君士坦丁资源

根据矿业部在其网站上发布的数据，该网站由Birn Serbia进一步处理和分析，“ Konstantin Resources”是探索矿石最大地区的公司。它的面积为71,089公顷，从塞尔维亚东部到该国遥远的地区，一直延伸到11个地点。

This company, whose focus is research on gold, silver and copper, was founded in Serbia on August 15, 2017, and in the meantime it has changed its ownership structure. At the time of its establishment, the company “West End Resources PTY LTD” from Australia was registered as its owner. However, in 2019, “Konstantin Resoruces PTY LTD” was registered as the new owner of the company, which changed its name in Australia and kept the same registration number.

During the registration, Vaughan Scott Wishar was listed as the legal representative and director of “Konstantin Resources” in Serbia, and several companies in the field of ore exploration and mining are connected in Australia. In the last change in the APR, on May 24, 2021, he was deleted as the legal representative of the Serbian branch.

2. Zijin, China

这家中国采矿集团的“ Zijin”正在塞尔维亚对四家拥有的四家公司进行研究。根据APR的说法，Zijin不能直接与所有这些公司联系在一起，但是它们的所有权已由竞争保护委员会网站上发布的文件确认。这是一份决定资本集中的文件，其中除其他外，列出了“ Zijin”在塞尔维亚经营的公司。这些是“巴尔干的探索和采矿”，“塞尔维亚·齐珍矿业”，“蒂尔瓦”和“塞尔维亚·吉恩·博尔铜”。

“Balkan Exploration and Mining” had exploration permits on an area of 28,722 hectares, and the owner of this film in the APR was the company “Reservoir Consulting (BVI) Inc”, registered in the British Virgin Islands. This company received permits for ore exploration in the territory of the city of Belgrade, with a total area of 6,741 hectares. It is about the locality “Babe – Ljuta strana”, which covers the municipalities of Voždovac, Sopot and Barajevo, where the presence of lead, precious and non-ferrous metals was investigated. However, on February 22 this year, the Ministry of Mining announced that “Zijin” had given up on further research at this location.

Serbia Zijin Mining has permits for an exploration area of 18,841 hectares, and its formal owner is the Cukaru Peki BV company, registered in the Netherlands.

“ Zijin's”公司“ Tilva”已获得13,498公顷面积的勘探许可，在英属维尔京群岛注册的同名公司在APR上注册为其所有者。

Finally, the 5,267-hectare exploration area is controlled by Serbia Zijin Bor Copper, in which, in addition to Zijin-related companies, the Serbian government has a 36.99 percent stake.

3. Mundoro, Canada

加拿大公司“ Mundoro”通过“ Stara Planina Resources”和“ Valdor Resources”公司控制塞尔维亚的51,744公顷勘探空间。

The company “Stara Planina Resources” was founded in 2011, and since 2015 the owner of the company is “Mundoro Middelen B. V”, registered in the Netherlands, based in Canada. Mundoro in Canada also owns Great Mountain Ventures Ltd, which owns Valdor Resources, founded in Serbia in 2020. In all of these companies, both Serbian subsidiaries and in Canada, Teodora Dechev, an investment banker from Canada.

4. Dundee Precious Metals, Canada

加拿大矿业巨头邓迪贵金属通过两家公司在塞尔维亚运营，这两家公司属于邓迪贵重的阿瓦拉·萨尔（Avala Sarl），该公司在卢森堡注册。

These are the companies “Dunav Minerals” and “DPM Avala”, which together have licenses for research on about 40,000 hectares. In Serbia, they have investigative spaces at nine locations, from Homolje in Eastern Serbia to the area around Kursumlija, Brus and Medvedja. By the way, these two companies initially operated separately, but later merged, and then they were taken over by “Dundee Precious Metals”.

5.澳大利亚Ibaera Capital

Ibaera Capital, an Australian investment fund specializing in ore exploration, is present in Serbia through Tara Gold and Zlatna Reka Resources, which together control 37,879 hectares.

“Tara Gold” was founded in 2016, and the company “Eldorado Gold Cooperatief U. A” from the Netherlands was registered as the owner. In the meantime, it became the property of the company “ISIHC Ltd”, registered in Great Britain.

“金河资源”成立于2020年，其正式所有者是来自英国的“ Betoota Holdings Ltd”。两家公司都有一段时间的同一位董事，来自澳大利亚的佩德·奥尔森（Peder Olsen），其所有权公司在伦敦的同一地址注册。根据英国业务登记册的数据，从伦敦的步道继续前往开曼群岛，在该岛屿上，该公司“ Ibaera Capital Fund GP Ltd”已注册，该公司也以同名在澳大利亚运营。

6. Balkan Metal Corp., Canada

该公司的“巴尔干金属公司”来自加拿大的“巴尔干金属公司”，通过该公司在2018年5月11日在塞尔维亚注册的公司“黄金时代资源”进行矿石研究。。但是，在2022年4月6日，公司更改了其所有权结构，来自温哥华的公司“巴尔干金属公司”在4月被注册为新所有者。

7. Jadar Lithium Ltd, Australia

The company “Jadar Lithium Ltd” from Australia is present in Serbia through the company “Balkan Research”, which has licenses for research of lithium and boron on an area of 33,692 hectares. It was founded on March 18, 2016, under the name “Nova Centauri Maetals”, and the Australian company of the same name was registered as the owner at that time.

同时，名称和所有者已经更改。2019年7月2日，该公司更名为“ Jadar Lithium”，并于2021年9月13日以“ Balkan Research”的名称进行了注册。同时，来自澳大利亚的所有者发生了变化。该公司首先传递给了一家名为Cilentist Pty Ltd的公司，该公司后来被东南亚资源接管，并将其名称更名为Jadar Lithium Ltd。”

8. Metalfer, Serbia

“Metalfer” is the only company from Serbia that is among the leading companies that explore ores in Serbia. It is a group that gathers several companies engaged in trade, processing and research of ores and metal products, whose headquarters are in Sremska Mitrovica. The company was founded in 2002, and its co-owners are Branko Zečević, Zoran Lojović and Stefan Zečević.

9.加拿大Medgold Resources

这家加拿大公司“Medgold资源”是真了不得g for ores through the Serbian branch of “Medgold Research”. It is a company based on the wave of the changed Law on Mining and Geological Research, which controls about 20,000 hectares of exploration space in the municipalities of Trgoviste and Bosilegrad.

They were registered in the APR on January 14, 2016, less than a month after the adoption of the said act. Lawyer Marko Curic is the first owner. As of November 25, 2021, the company is formally owned by the company “Tlamingo Mining” registered in Malta, but it is actually a subsidiary of the Canadian company “Medgold Resources”.

10. Euro Lithium Balkan, Canada

The Canadian company “Euro Lithium Balkan” is researching potential deposits of lithium and pine on an area of almost 19,000 hectares in the vicinity of Valjevo, through a company of the same name registered in Serbia. The company was founded in 2015 under the name “GeoMin Consulting”. In the meantime, it changed its name to “Euro Lithium Balkan” and became the property of the mentioned company from Canada, BIRN writes.