Tara Resources, the concessionaire of the Brskovo mine near Mojkovac, will respect the highest standards of environmental responsibility and ensure the well-being of the local community, the company said, adding that mercury regulations do not apply to zinc mining.
Tara Resources said several inaccurate claims were made regarding the potential impact of their zinc mining operations on the environment and public health, as well as the project’s compliance with Montenegrin laws and international regulations.
As they said, information appeared in the public that the Brskovo mine project is not in accordance with the Minamata Convention, or Montenegrin environmental regulations, including Articles 58, 59 and 60 of the Law on Industrial Emissions and Article 49 of the Law on Environmental Protection.
The company Tara Resources said that these articles of the Law on Industrial Emissions are intended for industries that produce mercury emissions, use mercury in their processes, or have mercury as a component in their products.
“However, zinc mining, such as the proposed Brskovo project, does not involve these steps or activities, and at no point is mercury emitted, used or produced in the process.” These regulations do not apply to zinc mining,” Tara Resources said.
They said that the process at the Brskovo mine concentrates the ores found in the ground and separates them into zinc, lead and copper concentrates for sale to zinc, lead and copper smelters, which buy the concentrates from the mine.
The ore from Brskovo, as Tara Resources said, contains only traces of mercury minerals, of the order of 0.003 percent, which will be present in those mineral concentrates.
According to them, this information is contained in the Elaborate on Reserves dated January 15th, 2021, which is the product of the collective professional knowledge of 17 experts in the fields of mining and geology, including ten PhDs in these disciplines.
