"Maritsa East" mines stop the excavation of new coal seams for two months, miners will clear their old vacations

The suspension of electricity production from coal from February 21 at the "Contour Global - Maritsa East 3" TPP will not lead to the closure of the "Mini Maritsa - East" mine. There will be no layoffs in the largest open coal deposit in Bulgaria. Ilza Chinkova, executive director of Mini "Maritsa East", announced this to Radio Stara Zagora.

"There are many rumors - that with the shutdown of the Contour Global TPP, the Troyanovo 3 mine will be closed, that the Troyanovo - North mine will be closed. I want to state that none of the mines is considered as an independent entity, we are one whole company. And as such, we are in a position to provide the necessary technical solutions in order to continue working", emphasized Chinkova.

Coal plant requests in January are down from the first month of last year. At the same time, the engineering plans of the Mines have been developed at a higher yield, which currently allows the requests of the plants to be covered without making openwork of coal seams. Therefore, in order to optimize costs, within two months, the excavation activity on the territory of all three mines will be suspended. As a result of this measure, BGN 30 million is expected to be saved from electricity and diesel fuel costs.

"The fulfillment of the plants' requests is guaranteed, normal and safe coal mining work is our main priority," the Mines management emphasized.

Also, from the end of the week, the company is undertaking a policy of clearing unused vacations for 2022 and 2023 for its employees. According to the management, the measure is necessary because it has been established that the accrued vacations negatively affect the financial result. "It's about BGN 20 million," explained executive director Ilza Chinkova.