Restart of the mines "Zletovo" and "Toranica" can be expected in one to two months if the preparations for it are going with the pace. Mortgages are cleared, and we are currently selling the property necessary to restart the mines. As informed the Prime Minister Emil Dimitriev, responding to a parliamentary question, the whole procedure on selecting a new concessionaire of the mines has been completed and the company "Minstroy" which is taking over the mines, which, as he said, followed after declaring the bankruptcy proceeding and mines going into bankruptcy as a result of poor performance of the previous owner.
"Currently running is the phase of sale of property necessary to restart the mines because one thing is the concession of mineral resources and the other process is acquiring an ownership of the property. In the past, a lot of time was spent on clearing mortgages placed on property by the previous owner, meaning in a single proceeding all mortgages had been cleared. The previous owner complained, but higher levels of the judiciary confirmed the initial decisions. After clearing all the mortgages on the property the procedure for its sale was then initiated", Pime Minister Dimitriev said.
It is expected that in the first week of July a meeting of the creditors will be held to decide whether the offered amount is acceptable, and if they decide that it is acceptable then the restart should follow.
"It would be ideal dynamics, in mid July for "Zletovo" and later for "Toranica" because there are some problems regarding the exploitation of the ore. So the removal of this obstacle should last for a month it and after that "Toranica" will function at full capacity. So it is about an important issue for the citizens of Eastern Macedonia, the citizens of Probistip and Kriva Palanka", Prime Minister Dimitriev noted.
I believe, he said, that as the process goes, stage by stage in accordance with all legal procedures we will come to the moment of the restart, and reemploying nearly a thousand employees in this region.
"I hope and expect the investor to keep his word in terms of the increase in salaries of the employees, in the area of procurement of new equipment, and in the area of investment for new ore deposits. I believe that if they keep their word, this would mean a new era for these two mines and a new perspective to these two cities in eastern Macedonia, because this process of overtaking the mine from one to another owner lasts for a long time takes and this could be seen through the standard of the residents of these cities", Prime Minister Dimitriev said.