Austrian company invests 42 million euros in Bulqiza mine

TIRANA, May 10 – Since 2007, when Albanian Chrome owned by Austria’s DCM DECOmetall GmbH signed a concession agreement with the Albanian government, it has invested 42 million euros in the Bulqiza mine and the ferro-chrome plant. Medat Zogu, the director of the Albanian Chrome ACR says in an interview with Monitor magazine that the biggest investments have been carried out in the Elbasan ferrochrome smelter and the Bulqiza mine which employs around 700 workers, being the main employer in the poor northern town.
Despite being in operation for the past 64 years, the Bulqiza mine is estimated to have 3 million tonnes of reserves. The company is currently working at four meters underground but its plans are to dig 204 metres below the sea level.
The privately owned company has grown into an integrated producer of ferrochrome and Albania’s biggest producer and employer in the metals industry since 2007, when it bought a 20-to-30-year concession in Bulqize, the country’s biggest chrome mine. Managing Director Rohtraut Skatsche-Depisch told Reuters last year Albania’s chrome sector is known for its high-grade ore, the design of its mines and smelters and their proximity to each other, which are key advantages while its road network is yet to be developed.
The privately owned company has grown into an integrated producer of ferrochrome and Albania’s biggest producer and employer in the metals industry since 2007, when it bought a 20-to-30-year concession in Bulqize, the country’s biggest chrome mine.
According to a World Bank 2009 report on the Albanian mining sector, over the past 4 years, attention has been paid to attract investment by foreign companies, particularly for prospection, thus offsetting some momentary shortcoming by the Albanian Geologic Service which is currently revealing a limited budget. At present, Canadian, Turkish and Chinese companies hold licenses to prospect for chromium, copper and iron-nickel minerals. Albania has for the first time seen the successful use of modern airborne geo-physical exploration methods by a Canadian company.
The mineral industry of Albania served for more than fifty years as a foundation of industrial growth and economic linkages, building on an underlying resource endowment of chrome for which it was, until the 1980s, one of the world’s biggest producers, together with nickel, iron and copper mineralization.
Mineral production and exports peaked in 1989 at US$140 million when chrome, copper and nickel accounted for about 80 percent of total Albanian exports (by value). By 1992 mining exports had fallen significantly to around $20 million, a result of political instabilities, economic decline within the country and the onset of a commodity recession that would persist throughout the remainder of the decade.