Companies Glencore (Switzerland), Romaltyn, African Consolidated Resources and New Mineral Processing are also interested in restarting activity at Remin, Adrian Volintiru, head of Romania’s privatization authority AAAS, told news agency MEDIAFAX.
Volintiru said an auction to select an investor will be organized in the next two months, in the best-case scenario, or in the next four months, in the worst-case scenario.
Remin Baia Mare is entirely owned by the state, through Romania’s state assets privatization office OPSPI, which plans to launch a public offering to select the investors willing to revive mining activities at Remin.
Remin Baia Mare shut down in 2006, keeping only 300 employees for mine tunnel maintenance. Before collective layoffs in 1996, the company employed some 14,000 people. The company went insolvent in 2009.
Early April, Romanian Prime Minister Victor Ponta said the government would convert Remin Baia-Mare’s debts into shares after several investors expressed interest in the mining company.
In May, Remin Baia-Mare sold its $53.1 million-valued stock of gold-bearing pyrite to Swiss metals and ores trader Werco Trade AG.
In July 2012, Ponta introduced Wesley Clark as his new advisor on strategic, security and economic matters. Clark is a former NATO commander and ran for President of the United States in 2004.