Asarel Medet
Encyclopedia
Asarel Medet is an enormous copper extracting and processing factory located at 11 km to the northwest of the town of Panagyurishte
in the Pazardzhik Province
, Bulgaria
. It consists of two main factories: Medet which operates from 1964 and Asarel which began operation in 1989. The number of employees has been greatly reduced since 1990s from over 5,000 to 2,500.
It extracts over 10,5 million tons of copper ore every year and produces copper concentrate which is sold to the copper refineries at Pirdop
. The ore also contains molybdenum
, nickel
, gold
, silver
. During the past several years some €40,000,000 have been invested in environmentally friendly technologies in order to preserve the nature of Sredna Gora
in the area relatively untouched.
Panagyurishte
Panagyurishte is a town in Pazardzhik Province, Southern Bulgaria, situated in a small valley in the Sredna Gora mountains. It is 91 km east of Sofia, 43 km north of Pazardzhik, and 37 km south of Zlatitsa. The town is the administrative centre of the homonymous Panagyurishte...
in the Pazardzhik Province
Pazardzhik Province
Pazardzhik Province is a province in Southern Bulgaria, named after its administrative and industrial centre - the town of Pazardzhik. It embraces a territory of 4,456.9 km² that is divided into 11 municipalities with a total population of 290,614 inhabitants, as of December 2009.-History:The...
, Bulgaria
Bulgaria
Bulgaria , officially the Republic of Bulgaria , is a parliamentary democracy within a unitary constitutional republic in Southeast Europe. The country borders Romania to the north, Serbia and Macedonia to the west, Greece and Turkey to the south, as well as the Black Sea to the east...
. It consists of two main factories: Medet which operates from 1964 and Asarel which began operation in 1989. The number of employees has been greatly reduced since 1990s from over 5,000 to 2,500.
It extracts over 10,5 million tons of copper ore every year and produces copper concentrate which is sold to the copper refineries at Pirdop
Pirdop
Pirdop is a town located in South-West Bulgaria of Sofia Province in the southeastern part of the Zlatitsa - Pirdop Valley at 670 m above sea level. It is surrounded by the Balkan Range to the north, Sredna Gora Mountain to the south, and Koznitsa and Galabets saddles to the east and west,...
. The ore also contains molybdenum
Molybdenum
Molybdenum , is a Group 6 chemical element with the symbol Mo and atomic number 42. The name is from Neo-Latin Molybdaenum, from Ancient Greek , meaning lead, itself proposed as a loanword from Anatolian Luvian and Lydian languages, since its ores were confused with lead ores...
, nickel
Nickel
Nickel is a chemical element with the chemical symbol Ni and atomic number 28. It is a silvery-white lustrous metal with a slight golden tinge. Nickel belongs to the transition metals and is hard and ductile...
, gold
Gold
Gold is a chemical element with the symbol Au and an atomic number of 79. Gold is a dense, soft, shiny, malleable and ductile metal. Pure gold has a bright yellow color and luster traditionally considered attractive, which it maintains without oxidizing in air or water. Chemically, gold is a...
, silver
Silver
Silver is a metallic chemical element with the chemical symbol Ag and atomic number 47. A soft, white, lustrous transition metal, it has the highest electrical conductivity of any element and the highest thermal conductivity of any metal...
. During the past several years some €40,000,000 have been invested in environmentally friendly technologies in order to preserve the nature of Sredna Gora
Sredna Gora
Sredna Gora is a mountain range in central Bulgaria, situated south of and parallel to Balkan mountain range and extending from the river Iskar to the west and the elbow of Tundzha north of Yambol to the east. Sredna Gora is 285 km long, reaching 50 km at its greatest width...
in the area relatively untouched.