NWR to invest big in mining assets in Poland

2010-03-05



New World Resources (NWR), the Czech mining group, has identified Poland as the number one priority in its plan to acquire mining assets in Central and Eastern Europe. In an interview with Czech magazine Euro, Marek Jelinek, NWR executive vice president, revealed that the company was eyeing takeover targets in Ukraine but especially in Poland, and was keenly interested in participating in the privatisation of the country’s state-owned mining companies, scheduled for 2011 and 2012.
Meanwhile, NWR aims to invest €350m over the next five years to develop a greenfield mine in Debiensko (Slaskie voivodship), next to a former mine decommissioned by the government in 2000, a project first announced in 2008 but which has been all but put on hold during the downturn. In the words of Jelinek, the project has met with a very positive response from local authorities, which are keen to attract new jobs. According to initial estimates, the new Debiensko mine could create 3,000 jobs.
The sum of €350m is significantly below the initially estimated €600-800m, mainly due to technical improvements to the original project, which are expected to bring its total cost down by 45-60%.