"The determination by the U.S and NATO, at all costs, to occupy Kosovo and virtually all of Yugoslavia, is spurred on by the enticement of abundant natural resources. Kosovo alone has the richest mineral resources in all of Europe west of Russia. The New York Times observed that "the sprawling state-owned Trepca mining complex, the most valuable piece of real estate in the Balkans, is worth at least $5 billion." producing gold, silver, pure lead, zinc, cadmium, as well as tens of millions of dollars in profits annually. "Kosovo also possesses 17 billion tons of coal reserves and Kosovo (like Serbia and Albania) also has oil reserves."
"A number of unofficial partition plans have been drawn up for Kosovo all raising the question of who would control an important northern mining region," the New York Times revealed. Trepca was also a "glittering prize" taken over by Hitler to fuel the Nazi war machine during WWII."
Since the bombing has ended, numerous US bases in the Balkans have been set up. A military base is being built in Kosovo, described as the largest US foreign base built since the Vietnam War.
"Behind the propaganda of a humanitarian war, U.S./NATO bases have been constructed in Albania, Croatia, Bosnia, Hungary, Macedonia, and Kosovo. The Balkans, a region of enormous strategic importance, rich natural resources and important industrial capacity is now occupied by thousands of US troops. All this has happened without any informed debate or discussion."
As mentioned in the NATO section, Russia saw NATO attacks on Yugoslavia as a direct threat to itself. In fact apparently some polls showed that 92 percent of Russians condemned the bombings while 70,000 young Russians had even registered as would-be volunteers for Yugoslavia.
We have been told that before the bombing began, all the diplomatic efforts did not yield any silver linings. What has not been mentioned in much detail is that Milosevic in fact did suggest that he would consider a UN or other, non-NATO force, but for the US, this was not the silver-lining that the US wanted.
It may not be entirely accurate to say Kosovo is “sitting on a gold mine,” but it is fair to say that the area’s natural resources bring Kosovo pretty near to this.
Kosovo has a very diverse geology with rocks ranging in age from 900 million years old to much more recent deposits. Volcanic eruptions, the opening and closing of deep oceans, and the ebb and flow of shallow seas that have long since dried up have forged Kosovo’s geological make-up. There were periods of mountains being formed when the earth’s crust was thrust upwards as ancient continents crashed together. During the Ice Age that affected the northern hemisphere in the last million years, the mountains that ring Kosovo were permanently covered with ice that sculpted the terrain, scrapping off the soil cover and exposing the underlying rock.
This rich natural evolution resulted in Kosovo being endowed with a wide range of minerals that make this small territory home to one of Europe’s most concentrated and potentially most lucrative mining sectors. With upwards of 14.7 billion tons of exploitable reserves, Kosovo is host to the fifth largest accumulation of lignite coal on the planet. The coals are spread across the Kosovo and Dukagjin Basins in the east and west of Kosovo. The lignite in the Kosovo basin is used to generate Kosovo’s electricity at KEK’s Bardh and Mirash open-cut mines that lie to the west of Pristina.
From the start of Kosovo’s lignite mining industry in 1922 until the end of 2004, more than 265 million tons of coal have been successfully extracted. These coals burn readily and generate electricity at a cost of 0.62 euros per Giga Joule. This compares most favourably with Bulgaria’s cost of 0.88 euros per Giga Joule and Serbia and Montenegro’s cost of 1.34 euros per Giga Joule.
These soft fossil fuels were deposited as plants in the two basins that were the homes of shallow freshwater lakes about 5 million years ago. As these plants died, so they accumulated on the lakes bottoms and were then covered by sediments. The coal seam in the Kosovo Basin is one continuous body that averages 45 metres in thickness and is overlain by clays and sandy gravels that vary in thickness from 60 to 130 metres.
In addition to housing fossil fuels, Kosovo is host to the five mines of the world famous Trepça Complex containing lead, zinc and silver deposits. These mines have been worked since Illyrian times and their remaining reserves still contain upwards of 425,000 tons of contained lead, 415,000 tons of contained zinc and 800 tons of silver.
These underground mines are spread across the geological Vardar Zone of the north and east of Kosovo. This linear belt of volcanic and sedimentary rocks has been broken by geological faults and the metals, which were dissolved in hot, salty water, invaded the rocks along these lines of weakness and cooled to form the veins. Additionally, the Ferronikeli Complex and the Grebnik Mine also contain rich metallic mineral reserves.
The Ferronikeli Complex comprises two open-cut nickel mines where nickel-bearing laterite is exploited. The remaining reserves contain at least 185,000 tons of nickel and 6,500 tons of cobalt.
The rocks that now form the ores were originally dark, heavy rocks such as serpentinite that have undergone intense weathering under hot and humid tropical conditions. The resultant red-purple coloured soils retain the traces of metals that were spread throughout the original rocks and today they form exploitable concentrations.
During the climatic wet season, chemical leaching of the rock occurs and during the following dry season, the fluid containing the leached elements in solution is drawn to the ground’s surface by capillary action and evaporates, leaving behind the salts that it once contained. At the start of the next wet season, these chemical salts are washed away. Repeated annually over geological time, this process leaves behind the nickel and cobalt, which increasingly become major components of the lateritic soil that forms a mantle above the original weathered rock.
Just south of Klina, the Grebnik Mine has proven reserves of 1,700,000 tons of bauxite, which is the ore of aluminium metal. As a mining rule of thumb, four tons of bauxite are held to contain two tons of alumina, which in turn yields about one ton of aluminium metal. If exploited, Grebnik Mine’s reserves should produce about 425,000 tons of aluminium metal.
The wide range of minerals present in Kosovo in combination with the establishment of a new investor-friendly Mining Law in the form of UNMIK Resolution 2005/3 has led to renewed interest from the global mining sector in exploiting this natural wealth. The Independent Commission for Mines and Minerals has actively sought to advertise this wealth at mining investment conferences across the globe.
In the past ten months, the ICMM has participated in international mining investment forums as far away as Toronto, Cape Town, London, Aachen and Sofia. The initial response of companies at these events has often been one of surprise that such a small area could hold so many different minerals in exploitable quantities. Seeing is believing. Some of the companies have sent geologists to Kosovo to look at the rocks for themselves. Geological prospectivity in Kosovo should be viewed as being extremely high. Although there is a mining history that dates back to pre-Roman times, the recent technological advances in mineral exploration have not been systematically applied to Kosovo.
The use of remote sensing and geophysical prospecting techniques aimed at discovering ore deposits that do not outcrop at surface has yet to be applied. There is no systematic geochemical survey data (soils, stream sediments) available. Drilling records were lost during the 1999 conflict.
The complex geological history of Kosovo, lying athwart a major geological suture between the Drina and Vardar Zones, coupled with the lack of systematic mineral exploration activity, such as the deposits at all five Trepça Mines not being drilled off, indicate high prospectivity. The application of systematic exploration programmes in the new climate of direct foreign investment from the global mining sector should yield exploration successes and not only rejuvenate Kosovo’s rich mining heritage but also its much needed economic prospects.
Nikolai Burcham, Independent
Commission for Mines and Minerals
Estimations of Mineral Wealth of Kosovo - “unprofessional”
Prishtinë, Nov 22, 2005 - The Director of the Independent Commission for Mines and Minerals of Kosovo (ICMM), Rainer Hengstmann, concluded after a research that the mineral wealth of Kosovo is estimated at 13,5 billion USD, Kosovar daily “Lajm” reports. But metallurgy and mining experts in Kosovo said these were unprofessional.
Academic Minir Dushi said he heard for the first time from the ICMM that the mineral wealth could be measured with money. “In the last research that we have made in 1986, there were 37.7 tons of reserves of lead, zinc, and silver at Trepça,” said Dushi.
According to Dushi, mineral wealth should be verified every three years. But he has never heard that anybody made any verification since 1986. Meanwhile, Izet Ibrahimi, Metallurgy Expert said that Kosovo’s mineral wealth is much higher than reported by ICMM. “This calculation was based only on the verified reserves. I thin that the real value is higher than estimated by the ICMM.”
Ibrahimi said that the latest estimations were made by unprofessional staff just to reduce the value of the mineral wealth of Kosovo. An Advisor at the Kosovo Ministry of Energy and Mining said that it is difficult to determine the mineral wealth of Kosovo, because it depends on the price, which varies on the stock market.
However, Academic Dushi said that it is a big mistake to evaluate the mineral wealth with money, given the fact that mineral prices varies almost every day. The search conducted by ICMM might have a certain goal, but Dushi does not want to prejudice anything without being well informed. “A research of mineral wealth requires time and great commitment by experts,” he said. “Internationals come to Kosovo with the assumption that the know everything.
According to him only 70 % of Kosovo’s mineral wealth has been explored so far.
Eugenius' mat prav. To c'o ne realizil Hitler, to relizit prezente EU.
Om EU ne idet o blagorenie vo vse EU, ale len o blagorenie vo zapade Europa.
Tie h'cet exploitit len istoke a jugo-itoke Europa, no glavno Slovane nacioni.
2007-04-03:
Rosju ministr zagrancief, Sergei Lavrov, virazxil omnenie zxe slabost Ahtisaarivoi raportuf o Kosovo es jegoi pred-mnenie zxe Kosovoju nezavisost es neizbezxju. Soglosuo s Lavrov Kosovoju nezavisost mozx-bi statit model dla resxenie podobju situaciafs v inju cxastis Vsetuf no dla dolg-vremju resxenie es potrebju dva-storonju soglosie.
2007-04-04:
Podcxas pozad-scenaju razgvoris v Sovbez Sodinju Narodifs, soglosuo s dover-dostoinju raportis, pocxti vse cxlenis virazxili sumnenie proti Ahtisaarivoi Kosovo-plan.
