UNMIK/FR/026/01
FEATURE RELEASE - 30 March, 2001

Trepca
Old car batteries wanted: ZveVan clean-up begins in earnest

As promised by Deputy SRSG Andy Bearpark last month, the Department of Trade and Industry has restarted a section of the Zvecan lead smelter - the part of the Trepca complex which UNMIK took over and closed last August for urgent public health reasons.

Beginning last Monday, the workforce began collecting metallic lead, some 400 tons of which is lying around the Zvecan site in the form of blocks, ingots and scraps, thus initiating the long process of revitalising the lead smelter and its associated plant. The whole process, DTI estimates, will take 2-3 years to complete and will depend on obtaining finance to rebuild the blast furnaces, repair the sinter plant and above all renovate the filtration system to remove dust from the exhausts.

The scrap and ingot lead will be melted down in one of the few serviceable kettles in Zvecan's old lead refinery. It will then be sampled, subjected to laboratory analysis, cast into ingots and sol, with or without addition of alloying elements.

All proper safety precautions are being taken and, DTI officials insist, there will be no pollution from any of the activities.
All the money raised will be put back into Trepca to help repair and rebuild it - the battery recycling plant at Zvecan having top priority because, unlike most of Trepca's surface facilities, the unit can be restarted after minor repairs (costing around DM 150,000) to the furnaces used to melt lead from the batteries. These changes will ensure that there is no risk to the local people, workers or the environment.

DTI is therefore seeking arrangements with intermediaries that between them supply used car and truck batteries at a rate of 1,000 ton per month. Interested parties should contact: Mr. Charles Carron-Brown, Director of Mines and Minerals, Department of Trade Industry, Green Building, Velusha II, Pristina.

DTI is also intending to raise further funding to help rehabilitate Trepca mines, concentrators and metallurgical plants by selling the complex's liquid assets. These include scrap steel, zinc concentrate, and lead concentrate stored at various Trepca facilities, as well as the silver in the bank of Pristina.

The re-melting of lead at Zvecan and its eventual sale to fund further rehabilitation are therefore an important step in the long hard job of getting Trepca operational and commercial, DTI points out.

Contact: Peter Ellwood
(038) 504 604 Ext. 5471
E-mail: ellwood@un.org