SERIES-  Chinese dirty investments: Meet "Ziđin", the destroyers of Bor

At the end of 2018, the Chinese mining giant "Ziđin" became the majority owner of the Mining and Smelting Basin (RTB) Bor, the only copper producer in Serbia, while the State of Serbia retained a minority share in ownership. Since the arrival of the Chinese owners, Ziđin has been fined three times for pollution. During 2019, the air in Bor was classified in the worst category of "excessively polluted", due to exceeding the permitted values of sulfur dioxide in the air, and the company was then legally sentenced to a fine for violating the provisions of the Environmental Protection Act, which refers to emissions of pollutants.

According to the report of the Environmental Protection Agency for last year, which was transmitted by CINS, the air in the center of Bor was "dangerous to human health" 13 times due to the frequent, excessive presence of sulfur dioxide. The Ministry of Environmental Protection has identified failures at least five times since the mining basin was privatized, and the lives of 45,000 citizens of Bor are at risk. Borans say that because of air and dust pollution, they "live in quarantine", and that "every other child from the neighborhood gets an asthma pump".

Ziđin Mining is one of China's largest state-owned companies, with projects in 20 provinces and seven countries. In 2010, it was rocked by two major pollution scandals that cost it millions of yuan in fines and compensation payments. According to Reuters, a flood of 9,100 cubic meters of toxic fertilizer from a gold and copper mine on the Zijin Mountain in Shanghai burst through a tailings pit and entered the Ting River, killing 4 million fish.

The management of "Ziđin" hid information about what happened for nine days, which is why the state media accused it of covering up the scandal. Chinese police later detained three employees. Residents of the village of Oštrelj, on the territory of the town of Bor, see and "inhale" a similar tailings dump every day, where around 194.6 million tons of ore have been mined since 1983.

Since then, the Veliki Krivelj flotation tailings pond, which was formed in the valley of the Kriveljska river, and only one kilometer from the current Oštrelj settlement, has grown to the extent that it prevents the inhabitants of this settlement from living a normal and healthy life in this area. The entire living world in the immediate surroundings of Bora is almost destroyed or seriously threatened, and as reported by the BBC in Serbian, the tailings "grew" at an alarming rate in the past year, and the big problem of pollution is increasing even more.

The non-governmental organization "BRI Euorpa" reports that the company

"Ziđin" has been repeatedly declared guilty of severe environmental pollution in operations in its home country, and the company is also known for its constant
neglecting the needs of local communities. One of the biggest complaints is precisely that "Ziđin" invests insufficiently in securing tailings dams where waste containing toxic metals is deposited. "Zijin is", according to the Peruvian "La Republica", in Peru, where he owns the "Rio Blanco" copper mine, also punished for violating local laws on environmental protection, but also for conflicts with members of local communities that resulted in injuries on both sides. In 2019, local residents gathered to express their displeasure over newly planned mining ventures, fearing that the new projects could lead to water and land pollution and thus threaten their way of life.

Since May 2015, "Ziđin" is also the owner of 47.5% of the "Porgera" gold mine in Papua New Guinea. Although a significant economic contributor to the country, the mine has also brought with it considerable controversy, including human rights concerns, environmental issues and conflicts over compensation. However, according to the Guardian, due to the global pandemic at the end of April last year, the government of Papua New Guinea announced that, for the reasons stated, it would not extend the lease of the gold mine, which contributes approximately 10% of the country's total exports. And the Ethics Council of the Swedish Pension Fund excluded "Zijin" from its portfolio in 2020, with the explanation that "by all parameters, 'Ziđin Mining' is the company with the worst prevention measures, and the company's history is full of examples of serious environmental incidents", as stated on the official website of the state pension fund of Sweden.

This statement by the Council led to the fact that several Swedish state-owned pension funds decided to exclude "Ziđin" from their investment portfolios. According to BRI Europe, the company is also on the blacklist of several Scandinavian commercial banks, such as Nordea and Swedbank.