On February 13, Minister of Energy Zhecho Stankov and Executive Director of Bulgarian Energy Holding (BEH) Valentin Nikolov visited the Geological Institute of BAS. The meeting was also attended by BAS Vice President Prof. Shtelian Shterionov.
During the visit, they discussed Bulgaria’s potential for exploring and extracting critical and strategic raw materials as well as energy resources, including through research under the current National Science Program “Critical and Strategic Raw Materials for Green Transition and Sustainable Development.”
The main focus of the talks was the detailed study of critical raw materials in the Maritsa East coal basin which is being carried out under a recently concluded tripartite agreement between BEH, Maritsa East Mines EAD, and the Geological Institute of BAS. A key moment of the visit was the tour of the laboratories for sample preparation, chemical dissolution, and subsequent analysis of the concentrations of over 50 elements, including a large number of critical raw materials, in samples from the coal-sediment complex of the East Maritsa lignite basin. During the visit, the guests met the project team and observed the sample testing process.
