Thursday, May 12, 2005

Kosovo To Spin-off Indebted Trepca Lead/Zinc Group To Avert Bankruptcy

PRISTINA (Serbia and Montenegro), May 12 (SeeNews) - The UN-run southern Serbian province of Kosovo said on Thursday it plans to restructure indebted Trepca lead and zinc mining and smelting group through a spin-off to avert the company's bankruptcy.

"The proposed spin-off will be subject to approval by the government in the next two weeks," Kosovo government spokesman Daut Dauti told SeeNews.

Spin-offs have been used by the Kosovo privatisation authority to clear the debts of state-owned companies ahead of privatisation.

The details of the spin-off are yet to be discussed, Dauti added.

He also said that several international companies have already shown interest in the lead and zinc mines but declined to name them.

"The restructuring of the mines comes as a result of their very bad condition. Their debts are estimated at 200 million euro ($255.37 million) and their production last year was at its lowest level for the last two decades," Dauti added.

The restructuring plan drafted by the ministry of energy and mines calls for the government to task a team of local experts to evaluate the current state of the mines and then hire an international team to assess the Trepca group.

Kosovska Mitrovica-based Trepca mineral wealth is seen as key to Kosovo's future economic prosperity.

It has 14 mines yielding lead, zinc, gold and silver, nine flotation plants, two metallurgy plants and 14 factories, all in a very poor condition. In the past 20 years no exploration works have been made in the mines.

During the 1980s, the group employed 20,000 and accounted for 70% of all former Yugoslavia's mineral wealth. Kosovo is considered one of the regions in Europe that have the biggest deposits of lignite, lead, zinc, gold, silver and oil .

12 comments:

Anonymous said...

"During the 1980s, the group employed 20,000 and accounted for 70% of all former Yugoslavia's mineral wealth. Kosovo is considered one of the regions in Europe that have the biggest deposits of lignite, lead, zinc, gold, silver and oil."

^^^This is why Serbia wants Kosova and has divided the city of Mitrovica. It has nothing to do with all that historic and religious bullshit.

Anonymous said...

The Trepca mine is a myth with which Kosovo's leaders seduced Kosovo's citizens that if they would become independent they would never have to work because the mine would bring enough money. As a consequence Kosovars studied literature and history in the 70s and 80s - to become unemployed. As a consequence also they stopped learning their children Serbo-Croatian - making it yet more difficult for their children to find work.

In antropology they call this a cargo cult: people giving up everything sensible just for the belief that at the other side of the rainbow there is unmeasurable richness.

In fact the new mine will probably employ about 300 people. That is what similar mines employ elsewhere (fe Australia). With supersize excavation machines and trucks you don't need many people.

Probably the mine will bring the Kosovo government a few 100 million dollar a year.

Anonymous said...

I have never heard leaders seducing Kosovars by telling them they would never have to work because of the Trepca mines. I also don't know any Kosovars of speaking age who do not speak Serbo-Croatian. Nice try....

Anonymous said...

#2 Interesting. Very interesting indeed.

How would you then explain the fact that Kosovars went to underground schools, teachers worked for nearly a decade without pay, hundrets if not thousands of people gave up their houses just so the children and young Kosovars could get educated?

Is this also part of your "cargo cult"?

I am sick and tired of people who have read three 'Economist' reports on Kosova and now consider themselves "experts".

There is no myth. There is no cargo cult. Most importantly, there are no Serbs violating and killing us, and stealing the natural wealth that belongs to the people of Kosova, i.e. Kosovars.

Anonymous said...

Kosovo itself will go bankrupt if the incompetents who run the place have their way. But don't worry if it ever? becomes part of the European Union millions of hardworking Serbs,Greeks,Rumanians,Turks etc... will have the right to live and work there and Albanians will be a small minority in Kosovo again.Once in you can't get out, so welcome to Europe and the rule of law.

Anonymous said...

#5 You seriously need to go and see a doctor, soon!

Get back to us when the Dutch are a minority in their own country. Correct me if I am wrong, but the Netherlands has been part of the European Union since it's very beginning. Does that say anything to you?

Anyway, why would "hardworking" Serbs and Greeks come to a "bankrupt Kosova"?

That's a contradiction in terms! Yes, you certainly do need to go and see a doctor.

Anonymous said...

#5

I must say participant #6 is correct. You, however, are not correct in stating that the future predicts the Albanians will be a minority. In case you have not heard, Macedonia runs the threat of being a 50/50 country, that is not from Greeks and Serbs, but from Albanians.
Secondly, I do not believe the highest birth rate in Europe dictates a future for a minority Albanian within Kosovo.
Although, considered primitive the high birth rate is not because Albanians are poor but because they have a different view of their children and of their future.

Cheers

Anonymous said...

Isn't Serbia bankrupt now? Hundreeds of millions of dollars in loans, if not billions of dollars. And Albanians in Kosova have never been a minority.
Wherever Serbs have been there have been wars. Serbs are a nation who bring destruction and war to their neighbors. Nothing but troublemakers.

Anonymous said...

Oh damn, there are serbs in chicago! >:( or is that another one of those cradles of their culture now?

Anonymous said...

European Union 360 Million people (non-Albanians and 500,000 Serbs)Balkans - Albanians 4.5 Milion, Serbs 10 Million. Who is in a minority now?

Anonymous said...

Balkans: Albanians 6 million and more.
There are 3.8 million in Albania, around 2 million in Kosova, 250-300 thousand in FYROM and Albanians claim the number is higher, around 800 thousand in Greece not including the Cam Albanians and the Arvanites and not forgetting the Albanians in Montenegro.

Europe: 5 million Albanians in Turkey, declared by former Turkish president De Mirel, around 200 thousand Arberesh in Italy, Albanian immigrants in Italy close to 400-500 thousand.

We're not counting immigrants in other countries in Europe. In Denmark there are 20 thousand Albanians, the popullation grows considerably in countries such as Switzerland and Germany.

Around 200-250 thousand Albanians in the USA. About the same in Canada.

Now you add up the numbers.

Anonymous said...

Ok dear Albanians - nobody can beat your recored in Europe - you multiply like rabbits - that IS true! And it is also right that you have other plans about yor children and their future!You did not send them to Serb speaking schools for long time before all the conflicts appeared in Kosovo!In fact why does an Albanian need education - for a drug dealer you don't need to be educated, right??:))