Bulgaria Euromax Assarel Gold mines environment cross border impact

Bulgaria is opening 8 mines in the vicinity of Serbian border on the protected natural area, defined under European legislation known as “Natura 2000” network

Experts warn that with the operation of open pit mines in the Bulgarian village Erul, near the Serbian border, waste will contaminate and destroy all wildlife in the river Jerma, which rises on the Vlasina Plateau, not far from Vlasina Lake, runs partly through the territory of Bulgaria, but then again, flows in Serbia and discharges into the river Nisava.

Vlasina Lake and its surroundings could become the subject of environmental disaster caused by pollution of the Jerma watercourse, from nearby Bulgaria as it is opening 8 mines, three of which will be open pit mines.
尽管塞尔维亚的主管当局感知到了和解，但来自两国的专家公众仍关心开放距离过境街道街（Strezimirovci）仅二十公里的黄金和银矿的计划。
According to plan 8 mines will be opened, three of which will be open pit mines, and remaining five will imply underground exploitation. The construction of two tailing ponds and ore processing plant are also foreseen.
Experts warn that with the operation of open pit mines in the Bulgarian village Erul, which is located near the Serbian border in Pernik district, waste will contaminate the river Jerma and destroy all wildlife.
Borislav Sandov from the Balkan network, European Greens, says that gold and silver mines contaminate water, both surface and ground water flows.
“最大的危险来自大的使用mounts of cyanide in the process of extracting precious metals from the ore in tailings, which is considered to be extremely controversial process in many countries. As far as I know the plan, it is envisaged to use mine blasting for the rocks, which is extremely dangerous because the presence of uranium has been found in the mountains. With the explosion there will be the radioactive dust that will be spread all around by the wind, and wildlife has no adequate protection from it”, he explains
The river Jerma rises on the Vlasina Plateau in the vicinity of Vlasina Lake in the municipality of Surdulica, and then at the border crossing in the village of Strezimirovci it flows in Bulgaria where it runs partly, and then re-enters Serbia and empties in the river Nisava.
Water pollution would not only affect the plants and organisms in the water system, but it would be harmful to the entire biological community, which in this case implies potential environmental disaster for Vlasina, which represents natural asset of great importance for Serbia.
In addition, the area around the river Jerma is protected as a special nature reserve inhabited by the protected species such as stone crab, brown trout, wild gudgeon, European chub and barb fish.
矿山开放计划目前正处于遵守保加利亚法律要求的阶段，然后该州获得了剥削的批准。根据《 Espoo公约》所产生的义务，保加利亚有义务告知另一个国家，因为该项目的实施可能会对邻近国家的环境产生负面影响，因此保加利亚有义务在其领土上开放地雷计划。，在这种情况下，保加利亚所做的塞尔维亚。然而，根据2015年7月6日的可用文件，前部长斯内萨纳·博格萨夫·博斯科维奇（Snezana Bogosavljevic Boskovic）告知她的保加利亚同事伊维林·瓦西列夫耶尔马河向塞尔维亚的河道。
该项目申请人是一家公司“ Euromax Exploration Services Ltd’（EES），前加拿大公司，该公司是由马耳他注册的保加利亚“ Assar Medet”购买的。
该公司的PR Elitsa Georgieva提到了计划，根据该计划，在未来26年中，将开采750,000吨矿石以发掘黄金和白银。她认为铀污染的恐惧是没有根据的，并声称320公顷的尾矿底部将涂有合成物质，以防止化学污染水，并指出要使用的化学物质并不危险。
Dimitur Vasilev, the Bulgarian biologist and chemist, as well as a member of the “Cyanide Free Bulgaria” coalition on the other hand explains that only certain chemicals are marked with their scientific symbols, while the number of components is reported under some codes, and one gets the impression that the company is hiding something.
矿山本身的位置是当地人的争议事实。也就是说，它是在受保护的自然区域上的，该地区定义为欧洲立法，称为“ Natura 2000”网络
Therefore, investors needed to change their original plans that implied all open pit mines, so the three mines located within the zone of “Natura 2000” will be underground mines.
“In 2013, the Government body for the ecology and environmental protection of Bulgaria suspended the procedure for investment proposals of mines, referring to experts evaluation from the Bulgarian Water Management Directorate, according to which the project will permanently and irreversibly contaminate ground and surface water flows in the region, and this is primarily related to the river Jerma and Jablanica that are passing the border with Serbia,” says Rumiana Bojanova, a member of the local association against the opening of mines, adding that the decision of the same Government was changed in 2015 with a meager response that the investor introduced some changes in the production method.
Bojan Rasev,拥有er of the company “Denkstatt”, which is performing the evaluation of plan for opening of mines in order to comply them with the Bulgarian legislation, says the investor is certified to open the mines.
“There is no perfect project for the opening of mine and each has the issue regarding the damage to the environment and human health. The investor will not use cyanide leaching technique because he knows it would cause social unrest, although this technology is best for the extraction of gold,” said Rasev among other things, in his conversation with journalists and residents that are against opening of mines.
When asked about the presence of uranium in the rocks that will be mined, Rasev said there was no specific information, but that concentration is not high.
关于Trun市剥削黄金的第一批研究是在1939年开发的，“ Zlata”矿山于1970年代开放。
Viktor Siskov (76) has been living in Pernik area for 25 years and he was technology chief officer at the mentioned mine.
“When the ore was extracted in the last century there was a lot of dust. A cyanide technique was used then, and it is no longer in use. Due to wastewater issues, there was no cooperation between Serbian-Bulgarian side to solve the problem. The river Jernik and Nisava were contaminated. On the other hand, while digging gold health of workers was deteriorating and they inhaled the dust and become ill from silicosis. I do not know how a new project looks like, but I’m against if it is an open pit mine”, said Siskov.
It is stated in the response obtained from the Ministry of Agriculture and Environment that the river Jerma, in exceptional circumstances can bring the pollution in Serbia, because the wastewater recipient from all small, permanent and temporary water flows is in the vicinity of the future facility, whose water flow shortly after the facility re-enters the borders of Serbia.
这封信说：“只有发生事故，我们才能谈论违反任何地方，甚至在弗拉西纳的违反环境条件的行为。”
“根据上述文件的详细信息，包括对项目负责人具有约束力的环境保护措施，预计在正常运营中，矿山，矿石加工厂和浮动尾矿将在边境地区的环境污染条件塞尔维亚”
The document signed by Snezana Bogosavljevic Boskovic says, however, that the possible negative effects of dust and noise in the nearest border zone with Serbia will not be visible because of the mountainous terrain and the forest vegetation, which will serve as a natural barrier.
“A dominant wind direction is west and northwest, which is in the opposite direction of the border with Serbia <…> According to the plan, a spinning cycle of water use is foreseen for the purpose of exploitation as well as collection of wastewater, which indicates that the project does not involve the disposal of waste water in surface and underground water flows at all stages of investment”, it is written among others, in the state document number 353-02-1155/2015-16
部长指出，佩尔尼克地震的预期地震的预期幅度在未来50年内估计在里希特量表的7级。这种地震会损害尾矿，在这种情况下，进入塞尔维亚的河流的水将受到严重污染。因此，有必要执行伪静电计算，这些计算不包括在战略环境影响评估的报告中。
Although the Ministry of Agriculture and Environmental Protection of Serbia published a notice about the plan for opening of mines on its website in order to collect public opinions and comments, however, there was no reply by the specified date
另一方面，与保加利亚边界附近的地方官员，例如弗拉基米尔·扎哈里耶夫（Vladimir Zahariev），玻尔德里卡（Bosilegrad）和诺维卡·托塞夫（Novica Toncev），来自Surdulica的Novica Toncev，并未得知在其市政当局附近可能发生这种事情。
塞尔维亚于2015年12月通过了有关采矿和地质探索的新立法。尽管这项新法律受到欧盟的批准和称赞，但有许多争议的规定，因为当地政府被完全排除在决策过程和许可之外根据民用部门的专家的说法，现在是集中的。
巴尔干绿色网络的激进主义者和协调员Zaklina Zivkovic说，环境保护是任何政府的绊脚石。
“Common problems that occur are the destruction of valuable soil, as well as industrial pollution and water pollution in the middle and lower reaches of rivers. Pollution problems are not easy to overcome, there is a constant problem of lack of funds in local budgets, and there is not enough funding from the state budget for improving wastewater management in local governments through investments in rehabilitation of sewage system, waste water treatment plants and modern landfill”, Zivkovic warned.
Therefore, it is still questionable whether the plan will come true, and it seems that we already have the answer whether all these issues will endanger nature and all its accompanying elements.