The deposit of marble ore in Andrijevica is still in a dormant state, after the Government of Montenegro did not accept the information according to which the Ministry of Capital Investments accepted the offer of businessman Veselin Pejović, i.e. his company Uniprom Metali, to grant concessions for 28 years. Portal RTCG was told by the management service of the Municipality of Andrijevica that the amount of concession compensation was small, ie only 7%.
For those reasons, it did not pass the Government. It should have been only from 30 to 50,000 EUR at the annual level of total revenues for the Municipality. It remains to be seen what will happen with the offer made by Bemax for ground stone. This is attractive now, because after the ban on the exploitation of gravel, ground stone remains as an alternative for concrete production – said manager Miloš Čukić.
He explained that the three-hundred-hectare plot, which was seized by a commercial bank earlier along with the business facilities of the former factory and is now being sold for a pittance, is not in the exploitation field.
The sale of empty business buildings and one and three hundred hectares of land cannot disrupt the valorization of the marble deposits in the area of Mount Željevica. The marble deposit extends over seventy hectares, according to research from the 1960s. New research, carried out by the Geological Institute from Podgorica, confirms that initial information, as well as the fact that it is a so-called decorative stone of high and exceptional luster, that is, its basis is architectural building stone, or AGK for short – said Čukić.
According to him, only a small percentage of the marble stone from the site in Andrijevica is of lower quality and weaker mechanical properties. All this is accessible for valorization and it has nothing to do with the seizure and sale of the former business premises of the Marble factory and a small part of the land – said the manager of the Municipality of Andrijevica.
An advertisement for the sale of business premises and land from NLB Bank’s portfolio from last year revealed that the bank had confiscated and sold a factory worth millions for a pittance. According to an earlier advertisement, NLB Bank has advertised commercial buildings with an area of 1,291 square meters, with a total area of 12,942 square meters in the municipality of Andrijevica, property list 5 KO Zabrđe, for sale for only EUR 54,000.
Finding out from whom the bank seized this property, that is, who previously used this bank and how much he borrowed by mortgaging the entire property, is not very simple. A once successful business company in Andrijevica, with a marble deposit under the Žoljevica mountain, has changed several owners since privatization, then went into bankruptcy, and then changed owners again.
According to some information, the last owners were from Greece, and it can be assumed that they are the ones who took out the loans and left, leaving the property to the bank. The Marble company was formed in the second half of the last century. It operated successfully for many years, until more than three decades ago it began to fall into debt and experienced the introduction of bankruptcy.
In the meantime, a Belgrade investor, in partnership with the Municipality of Andrijevica, bought the property of Mermera, forming a company called Andrimer. About twenty workers were employed in that company, which renewed the production of final wood processing. That plant worked for a short time, but a Belgrade investor bought the share that the Municipality of Andrijevica had in Mermer.
Andrimer was leased several times before it was eventually sold to a Greek company, which never organized any kind of production under Žoljevica, although it raised a loan for such a thing by putting the company’s property as a mortgage.
That property was completely devastated, and the real truth about the fate of the property of the former Marble company, which was located outside Andrijevica, is not known. Previously, according to the people of Andrijev and some of the former employees of Mermer, of which there were over a hundred in the best times, all the equipment and valuable machines were stolen from the buildings that passed from hand to hand.
It is not yet known where the movable property, equipment and machines ended up, while the bank is now advertising the entire real estate and three hundred hectares of land for sale for only fifty-four thousand euros. Allegedly, numerous investors, both domestic and foreign, have already “measured” marble deposits in Andrijevica.
There is interest, but nothing of valorization yet. All in all, the fact that the bank seized business facilities and part of the land has nothing to do with the marble site and its exploitation – says Čukić.
The fact that NLB Bank tried to sell the business premises of the former Marble factory, with an area of 1,300 square meters, as well as 1,300 hectares of land, for only EUR 54,000, speaks vividly of what this former company went through and what kind of “businessmen” they all are. roared through it during the transition.
