Bulgarian govt extends Lucky Invest zinc, lead concession by 10 yrs The Bulgarian government on Thursday extended by 10 years the Dzhurkovo lead and zinc concession granted to local company Lucky Invest. The previous concession period expired on June 30. A supplementary agreement to the concession deal will be signed after Lucky Invest submits a working project for the remainder of the concession to the economy ministry. The terms of the concession contract are not likely to be changed, said the government. The whole thing depends on the proposal that the economy ministry will make before the supplemtary annex is inked, said Atanas Marinski, the executive director of Lucky Invest owner Gorubso Lucky. At the moment, Lucky Invest pays the state a royalty fee equal to 0.3% of the value of extracted metals. On Monday, the local chamber of mining and geology said some of the local zinc and lead miners may have to shut down their operations due to low international metal prices. Marinski said Gorubso Lucky will be able to buck the trend as the price dip will not last beyond mid-2009.
Source: Dnevnik (22.08.2008)