Bulgaria's Lead and Zinc Complex Propped Up with Funds from Mining Co

OTzK workers protested on Wednesday in front of the owner's headquarters in Sofia, before moving to the Hall of Parliament. The protesters carry a banner, reading “Dignified work, dignified salary”. Photo by BGNES

The workers at the largest Bulgarian producer of non-ferrous metals, the Lead and Zinc Complex (LZC; OTZK) in the southern city of Kardzhali, have been paid their January 2012 salaries.

The BGN 500 000 in total were distributed on Thursday as a result of the sale of another troubled company, the Gorubso-Madan mining firm.

Both the LZC and Gorubso-Madan were part of Intertrust Holding owned by Bulgarian tycoon Valentin Zahariev. However, both have descended into debt, leading to workers' protests, and an intervention by the state arranging the sale of both companies by Intertrust Holding.

Zahariev owns a total of BGN 1.4 M in unpaid salaries to the Lead and Zinc Complex workers, and the payment of the January salaries on Thursday came after 42-day protests by the plant workers which started in Southern Bulgaria and reach the capital Sofia. Zahariev has raised the needed cash through the sale of the Gorubso mines in the southern town of Madan.

Bulgaria's government has indicated that the LZC in Kardzhali is also for sale, and that there are three bidders – one Bulgaria and two foreign – vying for it.

Thursday's payment of the workers' delayed salaries by Intertrust Holding was negotiated by Prime Minister Boyko Borisov, according to Tsveta Karayancheva, a Member of Parliament from the ruling center-right party GERB, who stressed that the crisis around the LZC is still being resolved.

Initial data indicate that Zahariev's debts already amount to BGN 360 M, and are way beyond the earlier known figure of BGN 320 M.

A total of 519 employees of the Lead and Zinc Complex in Kardzhali, the leading Bulgarian non-ferrous metals producer, had not received salaries for half a year.

In early April, the workers filed personal claims in Court against the owner of the plant, Bulgarian oligarch Valentin Zahariev, who is also know for mismanagement of what used to be the largest steel-maker in Bulgaria, the now bankrupt Kremikovtzi plant near Sofia. They demand the replacement of the entire management, starting with him.

The Lead and Zinc Complex is still owned by Zahariev, the now-former owner of the Gorubso Madan metal mines. Gorubso Madan miners finally received their overdue wages on last week after they had been staging protests for two weeks.

Businessman Nikolay Valkanov has taken over the concession of the Gorubso Madan metal mines from Valentin Zahariev. Valkanov is a former VP of Multigroup, the company of Bulgarian tycoon Iliya Pavlov, who was shot dead in 2003. Valkanov currently owns "Minstroy" and Gorubso Zlatograd, another mining company in Southern Bulgaria, and has a concession of the "Varba" mine.

We need your support so Novinite.com can keep delivering news and information about Bulgaria! Thank you!