Economic Development of Mining in Macedonia

The minerals as natural resource very rapidly became a significant contributor to the industrial and overall economic development of Macedonia. The intensive development started in all spheres of mineral complex like: metal ores, non-metallic mineral products, other mining and quarrying, water etc. During the transition period from 1990-2002, almost all mining activities stagnated and consequently many of the current mine capacities were either closed or sold unsuccessfully. Recently, with creation of new ownership conditions, it is expected that the entire mining industry soon will recover and restart and that new mine capacities will be open or the already existing ones will restart the production process. This paper fully addresses the most important mine capacities in Macedonia which normally function or are currently in the transformation process. Furthermore, the paper presents variety of tables defining the major productions accordingly to the sector or the type of mineral ores. In addition the comparative analyses are present in several tables dealing with the evaluated growth and the potential strategic goals necessary for development of the mining industry in Macedonia.