A decision on the fate of Gorubso-Madan mining complex can be expected as early as Monday, but until then the hunger strike of 30 laid-off miners will continue. This was revealed on Monday after Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of the Economy Nikolai Vassilev met with representatives of the strikers.

The miners of Gorubso-Madan have been protesting for weeks, demanding to be paid salaries which they have not received since 1999, when the company was privatized. In the latest stage of the protest, the miners went on hunger strike.

Vassilev announced that the Economy Ministry has ordered an audit of the company by Deloitte & Touche and their report on the financial status of Gorubso after 1999 will be expected within a week. Deloitte & Touche auditors will have to check if the state owes Gorubso-Madan any money. "Presently, there is no one in the state administration that can answer that question," Vassilev said.

According to Vassilev, the number of miners that have not received their salaries or the exact amount of money they may be owed is also unknown. The sum is supposedly between 427,000 and 1.5 million leva.

"No solution is one of the possible solutions," Vassilev was quoted as saying last week after a meeting of an expert group looking for a solution to the problems plaguing Gorubso-Madan, an ore-mining company in the Eastern Rhodopes. Deputy economy minister Kaloyan Ninov chaired the expert group, which included representatives of the ministries of economy and finance, and the Privatization Agency (PA). It presented information on the company's condition and problems. The problem has been circulating for almost two years while government institutions have been refusing to handle it. The owners bought the company when its balance sheet showed a 1.7 million leva excess of assets over liabilities. At the end of 2000, the company posted a 4.65 million leva loss. Now it is in a far worse situation. By all standards of international law, such a company should have gone into bankruptcy long ago, Vassilev said.

The state is largely to blame for the problem, he said. A large number of employees had not been paid for months, and then the new owner was saddled with these liabilities.

On Friday, representatives of Rhodope Investment consortium, which holds a majority stake in Gorubso-Madan, agreed to start paying workers their back wages and insurance under a schedule. According to the Economy Ministry, the schedule for the payment of wages and insurance remains to be specified.

The Bulgarian Miners' Chamber said on Friday that the Gorubso-Madan mines had a future. The chamber's chairman Luchezar Tsotsorkov said that the owners, Rhodope Investment, do not meet the conditions of the contract on Gorubso-Madan's privatization, and that is why the PA and the Economy Ministry should deal with the problem.

The miners' chamber insisted that the privatization of Madan mine and Roudozem refining plant need to be expedited. "If the two are sold right away, part of the population in these border regions will be provided with a means of living," said Tsotsorkov.

Last year, 25,658 people were employed in mining, compared with 84,269 in 1990. Coal-miners make up the highest proportion of the current number, with 18,893 people employed.

"Gorubso-Madan was awarded two concessions for 30-year exploitation of the Petrovitsa and Krushev Dol deposits," the company's deputy director Subi Kichukov said on Friday. "The money, which the company will pay for the concessions will depend on the amount of ore that is extracted.

"Currently, 22,000 to 24,000 tons of ore per month are being extracted at the Madan mines, and this amount is considerably greater than before Gorubso was declared bankrupt," Kichukov said.

In his opinion, another problem standing before the company is the recent low price of lead-zinc concentrates on the London Metal Exchange.