January 19 (SeeNews) - Bulgaria's caretaker government said that it entrusted the energy ministry with signing concession contracts with local companies Eco-Hydro-90 and Katerina - G i M, for two separate deposits of building materials.
A 25-year concession was granted to Eco-Hydro-90 to extract marbled limestone from the Konagovski Chal deposit in the vicinity of the villages of Debrashtitsa and Aleko Konstantinovo in the southern municipality of Pazardzhik, the government said in a statement following its weekly meeting on Wednesday.
The Pazardzhik-based company plans to invest over 474,000 levs ($262,500/242,350 euro) to mine the deposit during the concession lifetime. Over the same period, Eco-Hydro-90 is expected to make total concession payments exceeding 1.76 million levs to the state and the local municipality.
As for Katerina - G i M, the company received a 35-year concession to extract sand and gravel from the Vela deposit located in Bulgaria's northwestern region of Montana. Katerina - G i M will invest more than 273,000 levs in extraction processes for the term of the concession whereas it will pay over 474,670 levs to the state and the municipality of Valchedram where the building materials deposit is located.
The energy ministry must negotiate and sign each concession contract with the relevant company within six months.
(1 euro = 1.95583 levs)