Roman Copper Corp, the company which won the bid for Romania's copper mine Cupru Min, whose failed privatization contract was recently announced by the Romanian Government, said it had accepted all of the Government's conditions in the privatization. The company's most recent public statement dismisses the information given to the media by Government officials and points out that it is ready to “implement all the actions and investments requested by the government since the open auction for Cupru Min on March 26, 2012.” The statement thus completely contradicts the Government's announcement.

“As previously disclosed, Roman Copper’s team and the Romanian government’s negotiators agreed on the terms and conditions of the acquisition contract in the late evening of Friday, April 6 2012. These terms included an undertaking by Roman Copper to accept additional financial and other obligations that were not required in the original tender documentation,” according to Roman Copper's statement. It goes on to say that Lucian Bode, Romania’s Minister of Economy, reportedly suggested on Friday evening that Roman Copper was unwilling to accept the government’s new conditions. These reports appear to have created some confusion in the media and elsewhere,” according to Roman Copper.

The buyer's statement comes soon after the Economy Ministry issued a press release saying the two parties had not reached an agreement last week-end and that the privatization will be re-started.

The Canadian buyer however expresses its trust in “continuing our relationship with the Romanian authorities in a spirit of good faith and co-operation so that this transaction can be completed as envisaged under the competitive and transparent privatization process,” according to its statement.

Prior to the Ministry’s statement, Bayfront Capital Partners, which controls buyer Roman Copper, had publicly announced it reached a verbal agreement with the Romanian authorities and was expecting this agreement to be enforced. The company was then saying it had accepted all the terms required by the Government, even if they were not included in the privatization package from the beginning.

The state will re-start the privatization process for Cupru Min in the following period. “The Romanian state needs serious, strong partners, with good faith in privatizations,” according to the Economy Ministry statement.

The Ministry had asked the buyer to take over all environmental obligations and water management for Cupru Min, and the buyer should have made EUR 32.2 million in investments on these areas. The final amount for environmental investments could have been higher, the buyer has also announced. The transparency clause meant the contract should have been made public, which had been demanded by the civil society in Romania.

Romania wanted Roman Copper to pay the EUR 200.7 million amount within 30 days from the OK given by the Competition Council and from receiving the integrated environmental authorization.

The Canadian company Roman Copper Corp, owned by Bayfront Capital Partners, won the bid for copper mine Cupru Min Abrud in Romania, in a deal worth some EUR 200 million. Three other companies signed up for the bid: Australian OZ Minerals, Bulgarian Ellatzite-Med AD and Dundee Holding from the Netherlands. The Bulgarian firm was disqualified just before the start of the bid. The starting price in the bid on March 26 was EUR 57.3 million.

Cupru Min Abrud has estimated reserves of 900,000 tonnes of copper at Rosia Poieni. However, only a small amount of of it can be extracted every year. The investor needs to pay a royalty on copper extracted, of 4 to 6 percent, to the Romanian state. Romania’s Cupru Min ended 2011 with EUR 37.9 million in sales, 41 percent above the 2010 level, and a single functional production line of the existing four.

editor@romania-insider.com