Production in mine Lece near Medveđa starts in April - investment of 9.5m EUR

The President of the Coordination Body for municipalities of Preševo, Bujanovac and Medveđa and the Minister of Government Administration and Local Self-Government of Serbia, Milan Marković, announced yesterday (January 21, 2010) that mine Lece near Medveđa would be opened in March and that the production would start in April 2010 - it was announced on the website of the Government of Serbia.

Marković specified at the press conference in Medveđa that 300 people would be employed in that mine and added that two goals of the Coordination Center had been fulfilled: opening of bilingual department at the faculty and opening of mine Lece.

The Minister, who is today in Medveđa with the delegation of 28 entrepreneurs, said that the achieved goals and preservation of multiethnicity and joint life represented the foundations of the Coordination Body's policy in Medveđa.

He expressed gratitude to Mayor Slobodan Drašković for using the municipal funds to save mine Lece in the last ten years, as well as hope that Medveđa will not be in the category of the most underdeveloped municipalities in Serbia any more.

Drašković pointed out that, without the engagement of Minister Marković and Prime Minister Mirko Cvetković, mine Lece would never be the backbone of development of Medveđa again.

The owner and CEO of concern Farmakom MB, Miroslav Bogićević, who leads the delegation of entrepreneurs, said that aforementioned mine, owned by Farmakom, had 2,500 employees and the annual turnover of 200m EUR.

The delegation of entrepreneurs also included the representatives of Car Battery Factory Sombor, the Šabac Dairy, Industrial Combine Guča, Foundry Požega, Mine and Smelter Zaječar, Agricultural-Industrial Combine (PIK) 7. juli, Agricultural Combine Beograd, RDS Group and Mining-Smelter Basin (RTB) Bor.

CEO of RTB Bor, Blagoje Spaskovski, announced that 3.5m EUR would be invested in reconstruction of the mine in the first phase, while another 6m EUR would be invested in the second phase in construction of new state-of-the-arts flotation where top personnel would be employed.

Spaskovski said that mine Lece would annually produce 3,250 tons of lead, 450 kg of gold, 3,100 kg of silver and 6,200 tons of zinc, and he added that those raw materials would not be exported, but used for production of domestic final products.