According to the Bor city assembly and the director of Zijin, the new Novo Cerovo complex will meet the highest environmental standards.

The Chinese company says it has invested $ 142 million in “improvement of the state of the environment and ecology, instead of the 70 million dollars agreed in the strategic cooperation agreement ”, which he is currently in the process of removing waste from its previous operations and planting trees. He claims to have neutralized many tons of garbage and made over a thousand acres of land green.

After visiting the site, the Serbian Ministry of Mines and Energy said the company has fulfilled all the necessary requirements by mechanically treating its wastewater and cleaning the Pek River. Inspectors, however, ordered Zijin to build additional canals and sewage treatment pools to prevent pollution, which Zijin and the Ministry of Mines and Energy told BIRN had been completed.

Despite this, environmental organizations and many citizens of Bor doubt a significant improvement in the environment of the city, already one of the most polluted in Serbia. There have been several pollution protests over the past two years, amid complaints that the water in the area’s main river has taken on a reddish color and started to smell.