Canadians from Roman Copper take Cupru Min

The contract for selling Cupru Min Abrud will be signed Friday by officials and representatives of the Canadian company Roman Copper, the agreement provisions followed to be published next week, has declared the head of Office of State Ownership and Privatization in Industry, Florin Vlădan.

“We will sign Friday the privatization contract of Cupru Min. Few days after signing it, we will make it public. We want to show that it is not something to hide”, has affirmed Vlădan.

Roman Corporation has won at the beginning of last week the auction for selling the integral package of actions of Cupru Min, at the price of 200,77 million Euros, which is three times and a half over the starting price of the auction.

Cupru Min was sold by the state because it is a completely non-profitable company, and an investment of billions of Euros from the state in order to revive it would have created an enormous deficit, the buyer having also the posibility to sell further the unit, has affirmed the prime-minister Mihai Răzvan Ungureanu.

“In the last 20 years, did not exist any company managed by the state within the mining field which would had been profitable, there are pomps which absorb money from the budget in order to keep them at the surface. If we eliminate the subsidies and aerated, we observe that they are not at all profitable. Slowly, the state has struggled financially sub nurturing them, offering them illusorily the possibility of a stranger investment which has not really arrived, and their privatization, though pretty difficult, does not start today, but had started long time ago, in the ‘90s.”

“Assuming that we would have done an enormous investment, of billions of Euros or dollars, we would have created an enormous deficit”, has stated the prime-minister at Radio România Actualităţi.

Asked about the assumed investments of the buyer, the prime-minister pointed that no one buys in order to sell further, but he did not enounced it immediately.

“No one buys something in order to sell further what he buys. Ok, they can sell further, without any discussions, but at the end there is a profit, because otherwise there is money thrown at trash”, has affirmed the prime-minister.

He sustained that the selling price of Cupru Min was “very well consolidated, on a precise evaluation” and that the state would not have anyway the capacity to exploit the company in the lack of necessary technologies and investments.

According to prime-minister, Cupru Min is also an economically isolated company, because the extracted ore would have to arrive at Zlatna, at a plant ruined meanwhile and sold at scrap.

Asked where the ore will arrive in these conditions, the prime-minister has answered that “the investiture will take care, because he has all the interest for this.”

He showed that the state will charge the debts from Cupru Min, but he didn’t indicate the amount that would follow to be brought at the budget, sustaining that the exploitation plan of the buyer has to be seen.

“In this moment, there is a privatization contract, what will be the business plan it is something else”, has stated Ungureanu.

Copper deposit, worthing billions

The value of copper deposit from Roşia Poieni is estimated, theoretically, at 13-14 billion Euros, and the quantity at a billion tons of ore, has declared the director of the Mineral Resources Department within the Economic Ministry, Sorin Găman.

“The value of the deposit from Roşia Poieni is estimated, theoretically, at 13-14 billion Euros. From this value we have to deduct the extraction and processing costs. The costs cannot be anticipated by anyone, apart from the company, and the profit is impossible to be estimated”, has affirmed Sorin Găman.

He specified that the copper deposit is estimated at a billion tons of ore.

“In 2011, Cupru Min has extracted 2 million tons of ore, from which it was obtained 6,300 tons of metal, which is 0,3 percent”, has mentioned Sorin Găman.

The copper price-$/ounce

South America, owner of the main copper deposits

In 2010, the world copper deposits were estimated at 630 millions of tons, over 40 percent being situated in South America.

Actually, the south-American continent is the biggest copper provider oin the world, this coming from Chile and Peru.

The United States and China are other big provider, occupying the 3rd and 4th places among the copper producers.

The Codelco firm, which belongs to Chile, is the biggest copper provider in the world and own 20 percent of the natural deposits of copper.

The copper price has increased on the market from 5,150 dollars per ton, at 9,500 dollars in April 2011.

In 2002, the copper price per ton was the lowest registered after 1988, worthing only 1,670 dollars.

According to Reuters, the medium price since 2012 per copper ton is estimated at 8,000 dollars.

Copper is considered the best and the surest conductor of electricity and heat, being used almost 60 percent for the electric energy transportation.

In the most European countries, copper is used for heat transportation pipes, because it is durable and keeps the form even in conditions of high heat and pressure.

Translated by Alexandra-Diana Mircea
MTTLC, Bucharest University