According to a report in southeast Europe news agency SeeNews, a unit of Chinese group JCHX Mining Management has signed a 252.8 million yuan ($37.5 million) contract with Serbian miner Rakita Exploration for the construction of a gold and copper mine, part of the huge Timok project in eastern Serbia. The contract was signed by JCHX Kinsey Mining Construction doo Bor, a wholly-owned subsidiary of JCHX Mining Management, the Chinese group said in a filing with the Shanghai Stock Exchange.

The construction works are expected to start on July 1 and to be completed by July 2021, JCHX Mining Management said. In 2017, Rakita, then owned by Canadian company Nevsun Resources and US-based Freeport-McMoRan, said it expected to complete the construction of a mine in the Cukaru Peki Upper Zone of the Timok copper-gold project in 2021. Nevsun was then sold to China’s Zijin Mining Group last year along with control of Rakita. The Timok project consists of the Cukaru Peki Upper Zone and Lower Zone. Zijin now owns 100% of the Cukaru Peki Upper Zone and 46% stake in the Cukaru Peki Lower Zone, while Freeport-McMoRan Exploration Corporation owns the remainder.

The project is located within the central zone of the Timok Magmatic Complex (TMC), in the Serbian section of the East European Carpathian-Balkan Arc. The TMC has one of the highest concentrations of copper enrichment in the Tethyan Belt.