The suspension of the licence came after a working group was set up to inspect violations to legislation in force, safety conditions, and scheduled investments in the Bulqiza mining area.
TIRANA, Nov. 11 – Albania’s Energy Ministry has decided to partially suspend operations in the Bulqiza mine, the country’s biggest chromium mine, after an inspection group unveiled problems with safety at works and lack of investments. The ministry has ruled work on the D Zone in the Bulqiza mine, northern Albania, will temporarily be suspended until all measures to return the mining area to normality are taken. The D Zone in the Bulqizqa mine is operated by Tour Alb, a subcontractor of the ACR concessionaire which in early 2013 was acquired by Albania’s Balfin Group.
The suspension of the licence came after a working group was set up to inspect violations to legislation in force, safety conditions, and scheduled investments in the Bulqiza mining area. The working group analyzed the implementation of the concession programme, inspected the safety conditions and health at work and scheduled investments under the terms of contract in the mining permits.
Balfin Group, owned by Albanian businessman Samir Mane, is the biggest operator in the Bulqiza mine. In early 2013, Balfin acquired the ACR Albanian subsidiary of Austria-based DCM Decometal which had been operating the Bulqiza chromium mine since 2007 for an undisclosed amount. The mine had been previously managed by Italy’s Darfo.
The Bulqiza mine employs 660 people and currently has an annual output of 82,000 tonnes of the lumpy ore and fines, at a grade of 40-45 percent chromite.
Working conditions in the Bulqiza mines remain poor despite several concession companies taking over the country’s biggest mine. Dozens of miners have died while strikes on better working conditions and wages have often suspended work in the mine.
Several other smaller licensed or unlicensed companies operate in Bulqiza.
Back in 2011, Austrian-owned Albanian Chrome company which operated the Bulqiza mine was fined Lek 56 million (Euro 400,000, USD 560,000) for failing to make compulsory investments under the concession contract it has with the Albanian government. The decision by the Energy Ministry came few days after Albanian Chrome, the Albanian arm of Austrian miner DCM DECOmetal had its mining licence partially suspended and when more than a dozen miners had gone on a hunger strike in an underground gallery demanding a 20 percent wage increase and safer working conditions. “Controls carried out by the National Natural Resources Agency show that Albanian Chrome invested USD 3.09 million during the 2007-2008 period in the Bulqiza chromium mine at a time when investments should have been at USD 3.4 million under the contract signed with the Ministry of Trade and Energy,” said the ministry in a statement.
