However, I have not seen an official announcement of such a deal.
Perhaps you don't remember the official announcement because it was made back in February of 1997 ...
Final approval for Electroprivreda JV
Erin Ventures Inc
EV
Shares issued 10,713,333
1997-02-12 close $4.4
Thursday Feb 13 1997
News Release
Mr Tim Daniels reports
Erin Ventures has received the final approval and signing of
its 50/50 foreign joint venture agreement with Electroprivreda,
Sjerbje. Electroprivreda, the national power company of
Serbia, is one of the largest companies in Serbia with over
67,000 employees and numerous worldwide subsidiaries.
Through this agreement, Erin Ventures has secured a 50%
working interest in the borate deposits in the Jarandol Basin
of Southern Serbia. The Canadian embassy assisted joint
venture is the first foreign investment since the lifting of the
UN's trade sanctions in Yugoslavia.
Erin Ventures has committed up to a maximum of $2.6 million
in capital expenditures to finance an advanced drilling
program having a duration of four months commencing this
spring. The drilling program is to consist of detailed drilling,
mineralogical, chemical and geotechnical studies designed to
develop the larger of the two known deposits, the Piskanja, to
the feasibility stage. Direction and supervision of the project
will be provided by a newly formed Serbian joint venture
company Ras Borati with two appointed board members from
Electroprivreda and two from Erin Ventures. Technical
services and expertise will be contracted from worldwide
known professionals.
As a result of work to date the Piskanja deposit has partially
drill proven and probable reserves of some 7.5 million tonnes
of approximately 37% B2O3 with an average bed thickness of
4.5 metres in the upper zone and 3.5 metres in the lower
zone. Preliminary engineering evaluation of the drill hole data,
including beneficiation studies, suggests that the Piskanja
deposit has the potential of hosting mineable reserves in
excess of 10-12 million tonnes of 36 to 40% B2O3 which
would place the deposit on level with other known world class
borate deposits such as those in California and Turkey.
Borate minerals are comparatively rare with large deposits
only known to occur in a few places in the world, with the best
known in California and Turkey. Boron can be found in almost
everything including fertilizer, cookware, medicine and space
age metals. For these reasons borates are extremely valuable
industrial minerals that command prices varying from US$350
per ton for raw material to US$95 per kg for boric nitric power.
The product in common demand, and hence most readily
marketed, is boric acid which has a value of US$750 per ton.
The borate ore grade of the Piskanja deposit is currently
valued at approximately US$175 per ton or roughly equivalent
to the value of gold ore with an average grade of 0.5 oz/t Au. |
