The process of reopening the magnesium and graphite mines could start in 2023, with certain quality conditions regarding the graphite, the Minister of Economy, Florin Spătaru, announced on Tuesday.

“There have been Government Decisions to close these mines. The reopening of the graphite mines requires the adoption of implementing rules. … If such an approach is in the hands of the Government, here we are also talking about the involvement of the Parliament, then the completion of the process could be done during this year… I will appeal to the members of the Parliament for the urgent adoption of such normative acts because we need them: we have a large aluminum producer, we have two large producers in the automotive industry and we have an extremely strong horizontal industry. We need these resources. We intend to finalize the approval of these regulations by the end of the year, so that the actual investments can be made starting with 2023. For this we are discussing with the European Commission, in order to find the necessary resources through European funds for refurbishment,” said Florin Spătaru, according to Agerpres.

The Minister of Economy specified that the graphite mines are reopening with certain conditions regarding the quality of the graphite.

“In terms of the workforce, in addition to the staff who have worked in this sector and who are still active, we are talking about creating partnerships in a European alliance on the exploitation of raw materials with which we can finance and update the studies curricula for the profile universities. I am referring to the University of Petroşani, the University of Bucharest and other universities in the country. With the help of such an approach, we will be able to ensure a qualified workforce that can continue such a process,” said the minister.

He stressed that the reopening of these mines and their refurbishment are time consuming processes.

“During this time we can update these curricula. We have approached the Ministry of Education to discuss the subject of competencies and the subject of qualifications for such a segment. It is a process that will begin in 2023”, added Florin Spătaru, mentioning that “we haven’t done anything but shut down some mines for 30 years.”