Verde Magnesium, backed by the Amerocap investment fund, plans to invest in Romania USD 1 billion within eight to ten years to develop a magnesium mine and a processing plant that would use the magnesium to recycle aluminum and produce aluminum alloys. 

The company is poised to be the EU's leading producer of metallic magnesium, offering Europe an alternative domestic supply for its demand, which is currently 100% imported.

On April 15, the company was issued the permit to reopen a closed magnesium mine located in western Romania, near Oradea, Profit.ro reported.

The investor plans to start magnesium production in Romania within four to five years and estimates an annual production capacity of some 90,000 tonnes afterward, according to Ziarul Financiar. The exploitation works will last up to five years, and in parallel, work will also be carried out for the development of the magnesium metal production unit, said Verde Magnesium CEO Alexandru Rosu.

The last two European mines producing magnesium, one in Norway and the other in France, were closed in 2001, one of the reasons being competition from cheap imports from China. 

Depending on the development of the production capacity, the project is presented as creating up to 1,000 direct jobs and up to 10,000 indirect jobs. 

iulian@romania-insider.com

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