Minister of Energy and Industry in Albania has decided to suspend the mining operating permit licenses, which had 121 private enterprises . The decision was made by the Minister Damian Gjiknurija , said official sources of the ministry. According to these , the Ministry of Energy and Industry have been checking how the companies has obtained the licenses for using minerals.
In addition to these 121 licenses which were seized , the authorities have also decided to impose a fine for a few other items . Albanian authorities have even published a complete list of companies that have been fined .
During the audit ,the authorities have identified cases where subjects who were issued permits for mineral extraction didn’t respect the law and didn’t pay their obligations to the state .
Based on the audit results , Gjiknuri signed a suspension of 121 mineral licenses, which is about 16 percent of the total number of permits issued.
Some of these cases had a license that expired and were not extended in time . Generally , these entities have suspended all mineral activities,and although the authorities demanded the rehabilitation of the environment which they destroyed ,that they did not do it .
Source; Serbia Energy See Desk
