Zijin has pulled its machinery off Malka Golaja: no equipment and no cabins left on site

On Friday, 14 August 2026, at around 11:30, we were at Malka Golaja, at the Serbia Zijin Mining exploration site in the cadastral municipality of Zvezdan. There was not a single machine on site. No excavators, no trucks, no cabins, no equipment and none of the signs that used to stand there. The works have stopped, and the plateau has been left as it is.

This is the same site where, on 11 June, the national forestry and hunting inspectorate found that 11.49 hectares of forest had been destroyed in breach of the Forest Act and ordered all use of the forest to stop, with the deadline set as "immediately". In August, Zaječar councillors filed a criminal complaint, citing 30 hectares cleared against permits for access roads up to six metres wide.

What the permit actually covers

We are publishing the decision of the Ministry of Mining and Energy no. 310-02-1078/2022-02 of 20 October 2025, which granted Serbia Zijin Mining d.o.o. a first extension of geological exploration for copper, gold and associated mineralisation in the Brestovac-Metovnica exploration area, designated 2527, covering 59.44 km² across the territories of Bor and Zaječar. The full document is among the sources below.

Three things follow from it. First, this is a permit for exploration, not extraction, and it mentions neither felling nor the clearing of forest land. That requires a separate basis under the Forest Act, and it is precisely its absence that the inspectorate established in June. Second, point 4 states that the scope and type of works are to be carried out "entirely in accordance with the Project" of applied geological exploration no. 450/25 of 12 June 2025, drawn up by Balkan Exploration and Mining d.o.o. That project is not public, and it is the only document that defines how much may be dug and cleared. Third, the exploration term is three years and runs into late 2028.

Why they left

We do not know, and we will not pretend that we do. The company has given no reason. The withdrawal coincides with several things at once: the inspectorate's stop order, the criminal complaint, the closing of the objection deadline on 3 August, and a sharp rise in public and media attention. Each of those is a possible reason, and none of them is confirmed.

One explanation, however, drops out. It cannot be said that the exploration phase simply ran out, because under this decision the exploration term runs to 2028. Equally, the withdrawal by itself does not prove there was no permit, because the exploration permit exists and is attached here. What is proven is a third thing, and it sits in the inspectorate's own document: the clearing of 11.49 hectares was carried out in breach of the Forest Act, and it was ordered to stop. That sentence holds without a single assumption of ours, which is why we stand on it.

What we are asking for

We ask the forestry inspectorate for a follow-up inspection and a finding on whether the company complied with the order. We ask the Basic Public Prosecutor's Office in Zaječar for the status of the complaint. We ask the Ministry of Mining and Energy to publish the Project of applied geological exploration no. 450/25 that the decision itself refers to, because without it nobody outside the company can compare what was approved with what was done on the ground. And we ask the company to say why it left and whether it intends to return.

What this is, and what it is not

This is not the final victory and we are not celebrating. We expect the machinery to come back. The exploration term runs to 2028, the deposit has not gone anywhere, and the spatial plan is still in procedure, heading towards a draft and a new public review. An empty plateau is the state of one day, not an outcome.

But one thing is no longer in doubt. The most common thing you hear in Zaječar about the mine is that there is nothing we can do, that it is all agreed in advance and not worth trying. The last three months have disproved that, with documents rather than feelings. One association's complaint triggered an unscheduled inspection. That inspection established illegal clearing and issued a stop order. On that basis councillors filed a criminal complaint. Organisations, experts and citizens from across Serbia sent in objections to the early public review document. The case travelled from local news to national media and to the minister, who had to make a public statement about them.

We are not claiming that we drove the machinery off. We do not know why it left. We claim something more modest and checkable: when people file a complaint, a criminal report and a formal objection, institutions move and a written record remains. That is the opposite of "nothing can be done", and it is also the only route we have into the next phase.

Until then, the site stands like this. If you notice the machinery coming back, photograph it with the date and send it to info@timockabuna.org. We will keep going out to the site and publishing what we find.