Macedonia: Public debate for the last amendments of the Law on Mineral Resources

Today in the premises of the Ministry of Economy a Public debate was hold regarding the last amendments of the Law on Mineral Resources. At the debate were present the Minister of Economy Valon Saraqini, the President of the Macedonian Mining Association Nikolajco Nikolov, experts and representatives from the Ministry of Economy.
“I would like to point out that today we had further harmonization of the remarks for the Law on Mineral Resources, and not a request for a new Law, but a consolidated text. One of the key issues that we reviewed at the meeting was that the metallurgy sector in the country doesn’t have the capacity for finalization of the mineral resources. Although this is stipulated in the amendments of the Law for utilization of ores, still it is almost impossible to be applied in practice. The mine Bucim cannot do this, to finalize the gold concentrate into final product, so we consider that the application of this Article should be delayed for a certain period of time, when condition for that would be created. It is good to endeavor to finalize the products, export and sale, this is also our desire, but it is not always feasible, for which are necessary capacities that Macedonia doesn’t have. Having in mind, how many resources we have, it is very difficult to make economically justifies objects”, said Nikolov.
Harmonization was achieved also in the part of the Law that regulates the authorizations, i.e. who may be bearer of a project in the field of mining and geology, and also it was agreed after the entry into force of the Law to enact a consolidated text of the whole law.
The Professor from the Faculty for Natural and Technical Sciences Zoran Panov pointed out that the Law was prepared in a good and qualitative manner and that it protects the interests of the country and the investors.
“I would like to welcome this initiative and to thank the Minister for the understanding and the given opportunity to discuss the Law, so that he can in person listen to our remarks, hoping that in near future we will find a common language for our requests”, said Nikolov.

energjia.al, 29.05.2013