My first question is in terms of the history, rather the recent history because Trepca has very long history. Could you brief us on the history of Trepca from the war until now.
I would briefly say that the history of commercial activity in Trepca began in 1928, after that date and within a relatively short time, the mine in Stan Trg was opened and in 1930 the regular production started. Later the lead metallurgy and lead refinery was built in Zvecan. This used to be an English company called Trepca Mining that built infrastructure objects. We can be proud that we were the first ones in the Balkans to have tennis fields and swimming pools. This is the past. I don't know if it's relevant to say that Englishmen handed an undamaged Trepca to the Germans. That's why they immediately continued production, although it was very strategic production. Germans also left Trepca in very good condition, functional and undestroyed. This was a very important factor after the Second World War, as we were able to start production very quickly.
Was Trepca destroyed or did it suffer any destruction at all during the conflict with Serbia?
I will come very shortly to that point. Until 1964 almost nothing was invested in Trepca. Outside of Trepca a chemical industry was built, which was in a very difficult situation therefore it was joined to Trepca. In fact, during that time what the Englishmen had built was being used. Some changes took place in the economy of Yugoslavia, the provinces were given bigger rights for investments and Yugoslavia started getting loans from foreign countries. The development of Trepca is very closely related to the cooperation with international companies, both in aspects of financing and banking and in the aspect of technology. The big turn in Trepca happened in 1967, the first Battery Factory was built and for the first time, except producing the metals in blocks, Trepca started producing something more sophisticated, at least for that time. Later other departments within Trepca were established, such as the Institute for Technology, Enterprise for Foreign Markets, Trepca Bank, and it developed into a very serious complex. The development of Trepca is based on natural technical and technological development. First the mines developed, and after concentrating on the flotation and the metallurgy, we moved into metal processing, and so we covered all production.
Maybe it is important to mention some of the factories that were built by Trepca. Our development also leaned on the investigations we conducted in foreign markets and technology. We had a study that was ordered by Metal Gesenschaf from Germany, a very serious company. They prepared all the possibilities for processing metal in Trepca. That study covered the technology and market together. The old engineers in Trepca feel a little offended, when we are called dinosaurs, because Trepca used to develop with the most modern technology around at that time. It mostly worked with well-known companies and sold its products in the world market. Of course we could no be out of the Yugoslavian system, but from the aspect of production and of our technology it tells us that it was modern at that time and it was proved in world markets. In this part of Europe we were the first ones to produce batteries with dry charge.
We were among the first ones with polypropylene batteries. We were the second with Dryfoot. These were all achieved with buying the relevant technology, but I have to mention that there were people that knew what to buy. This shortly covers Trepca until 1989 when politics started to get involved in the running of the enterprises. During this year forced measures were applied by Serbia, in 1990 most of the Albanian workers, engineers and experts were fired and large problems started to accumulate for Trepca at this time. I wanted to mention that when Englishmen and Germans managed Trepca, it was functioning excellently. When Albanians, Serbs and other nationalities here managed it, it was working very well indeed. But at the moment when someone said that only Serbs have to be in the leading positions, and unfortunately it was said that only Serbs can work in it, that was the time when the real destruction of Trepca started. I mentioned the Dryfit Battery Program we called it the Trepca of the 21st Century, and those were programs that we named at that time. All equipment was brought here and still is here and a contract was signed for selling of 40% of our products in Germany, in a 10-year period. The contract was complete. Another Austrian company was very interested to buy the remaining 60% and then comes someone, and fires the people that were working in that program. The realization of the program stooped, because there was no one to work on it. People that worked for 5 years in that program, and went for specialization were not allowed to enter the factory anymore.
All the equipment is still standing here, packed and wrapped in plastic bags, and it really cannot be used anymore because 10 years have passed and the technology is now old. This is just to tell you, how much the idiotic apartheid cost Trepca, regarding the criteria for employing someone not because he was a good engineer, but because he wasn't Albanian. This is what happened until 1990. When we arrived in 1999, some of our workers voluntarily entered Trepca's facilities. According to their reports, the objects were not in bad condition. In fact, regarding the documentation we saw that Trepca functioned until recently.
There were parts of it that were working even during the bombing. KFOR took Trepca under its control and it didn't allow workers to get in. The Serb workers that used to work before were being brought to work in KFOR trucks. We don't know what happened during that time in Trepca. For more than one month the Albanian workers demonstrated and requested their jobs back. They stopped the demonstrations after they were promised that their problems would be solved. UNMIK engaged ITT, which is a consortium of companies, in order to assess the conditions in Trepca and to propose what they could do to further to help the situation. I don't know if this was just a coincidence, but it happened just when KFOR closed the led metallurgy because of environmental pollution. ITT and UNMIK hired 1000 Albanian and 1000 Serb workers. When Albanians entered the objects they were almost totally destroyed. The damages in equipment were not very big, but all the infrastructure objects were completely damaged and destroyed. We can only suppose what happened from the time when KFOR entered until the time when we were delivered the objects. During that time there was a fire in a vital part of the zinc metallurgy. I can tell with full responsibility that we have no reports regarding the way that fire came up. But today the reality is that in Trepca nothing is produced, not even the batteries.
Who is the current management, you yourself obviously, but are you being supervised, is it being taken over by a consortium of British and French investors, Is this the case?
Trepca is under UNMIK administration, this is the only organization in Kosova with this status. UNMIK does not administrate all previous Trepca's structures, such as our mines in Serbia and Montenegro. Under UNMIK administration are Leposavic, a complex with 4 mines and the Led Metallurgy facility in Zvecan, MIP in Mitrovica, which includes Chemical Industries, Zinc Metallurgy and a battery factory, the largest mine in Stan Trg, and the mine complex near Prishtina. The other factories are registered separately from Trepca. At the head of Trepca there is a manager appointed by UNMIK, and we are expecting the new person to be chosen for that position. He has two local managers, one of them is myself and the other one is of Serb nationality. | Where do you rank in influence amongst them?
I am the local manager of Trepca. The idea is that more responsibilities from UNMIK to be transferred to the local manager. I am the manager of Trepca, but I myself cannot go to the factories that we have in northern parts of Mitrovica. So in fact I am in charge of the structures that are located in center and south.
These would be the mines located in Kosovo region, correct?
No, the Leposavic complex is not. We act as a team, we have common meetings, I am informed about what is going on there, I have materials, and I have an impact in a way. But in reality the political separation of Kosova, has separated Trepca also. This presents a real problem for Trepca, which is very limiting in some aspects. It is enough just to tell you that one metallurgy plant is here, and the other one is there. ITT has finished their work and has prepared very extensive material while did the assessment in Trepca. Afterwards, UNMIK engaged a number of so called international experts, a group of them that operational the work that was done by ITT. And now we as local managers and local experts, according to the information of these two assessments, and our knowledge that we had and gathered while working here, we have prepared concrete business plans for each structure. We have plans for Zync Metallurgy, Battery Factory, Chemical Industry, and another unit that is not activated yet, but it produces and assemblages the equipment needed in Trepca. We have also prepared second hand business plans. And I can say with full responsibility that we know what is needed do be done in Trepca, we know how much money is needed for that, but unfortunately we have to convince someone to give us that amount of money, and that is the hard part.
Would you say that what Trepca needs is just a good and committed investor?
Yes, we need investors. We have visited the annual meeting of the Miners Convention held in Canada. We had a very good presentation of our programs there, we had contacts with serious companies, and now we are waiting for them to react. We are preparing the summaries of our business plans, because they are to too extensive and written in very professional terminology. We want to summarize it and write it in a way that people who don't have much knowledge about mining can understand it. We want to do a presentation of Trepca's programs, and we hope to do it in most acceptable way. Currently we are putting our best efforts in this.
You know what capital is necessary to make Trepca function again, but do you know the amount of money that Trepca can generate? That is after all what investors are most interested in. So, how much business can your managed side of Trepca generate?
Our business plans are, as I was mentioning presented in MPB and IRR, and everything regarding your questions is presented. I want to tell you that in this moment we are interested for at least two things at this moment. The first is the realization of some small programs, which are oriented towards the protection of the environment and security at work. The second is to move from the static, non productive state in which Trepca is, to a dynamic and productive state. This would be the first phase of Trepca's development. The second phase is the renewal of the existing equipment, while the third phase is the implementation, introduction of modern machines for production. I can provide you with the information how much does every phase cost, and especially for the parts that I am in charge of.
What do you think Trepca has to offer to the world market of minerals? What do you consider to be Trepca's most competitive advantage?
The first thing is the amount of natural resources present here, we have assessments on what kind of mines we have, what are their amounts of reserves and their structure and this presents a healthy ground for someone to come and invest here. The second thing is that we have the infrastructure and existing equipment in Trepca, which can enter production after having little refreshment. The third is the people, or they are maybe the first advantage. They've worked for very a long time they know how to work and they want to work. They work for salaries that are lower than those paid in western countries. I know that the salaries for workers in mining take a very high percentage of turnover in every company.
What would you want to tell the foreign investors about Trepca?
I can speak only about the parts that I lead. I think that the political status and juridical and economic status are very limiting for Trepca. The President or someone that is more competent should tell you this. But for us is very important to solve the problems regarding these two issues. What I would say to potential investors is that here they will meet people who can work, that want to work and that are very transparent regarding all the relevant data regarding the work. Once again mention that has been proven by a study realized by ITT, CSA, and local experts, and essentially they don't differ from one another. If they don't trust the local experts they can double check with the assessments conducted by international experts. This kind of data is very rarely offered to investors in other parts of the world.
We are always interested in the person that runs the business. Trepca being a mining giant must be very challenging to manage, so we would like to know the man behind it.
I am an engineer of Electro-Techniques and an engineer of Organizational Sciences, one kind of management. I have spent all my life in Trepca except the period when I was fired. I have worked in the mine flotation's, Led Metallurgy and the Battery Factory, so I have worked in all positions from the engineer of the shift, which is the hardest engineering work, and I have developed through the hierarchy of engineers and managers. I was a technical director, director of the factory, I was the general director of the factories, so called Chemical and Electrical Sources, and I was for 6 years the president of Trepca. I have worked as a counselor for development to president of Trepca. I was a deputy of director fin the Enterprise for Foreign Relation.
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