The contract to sell the copper mine Cupru Min Abrud in Romania will be signed today ( April 6 ) by the officials of the Office of State Ownership and Privatization in Industry (OPSPI) and the representatives of the Canadian company Roman Copper. The provisions of the agreement will be made public next week, according to the head of OPSPI, Florin Vladan. “We want to show that there isn’t anything we want to keep secret,” he added.

According to Florin Vladan, the approval of the Competition Council is needed for the transaction to be completed. The approval must come within 90 days of signing the contract, and after this, Roman Copper has 30 days to transfer the amount of EUR 200.7 million to the OPSPI.

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.

Irina Popescu, irina.popescu@romania-insider.com