BASE METALS PRODUCTION IN THE SOUTH-WEST EUROPE

Base metals like lead and zinc are ranked in the fourth respectively in the fifth place in the world being debated about their use. In the last two years, the relation supply/demand of these metals is obviously disordered in favor of raising demand, and this has caused an enormous variety of prices for base metals in the market. From the other side, the region of Balkan is relatively rich with ore deposits of these metals. Changes and transitions which happened through 90-ties destroyed the mining production which still is not erected. The European Union after year 2000 approved some regulations with which are prescribed the framework of sustainable development of the mining sector. Besides, in the past, there were built metallurgy capacities for Pb and Zn, which today but also in a certain future will not easily face with European frameworks, but will also not have sufficient concentrates for their own processing capacities. In this paper, there has been analyzed the actual situation in primary ore and concentrate production and is estimated the expected perspective of ore and metal production, always seen from the point of view of European requirements for sustainable development. The need for a closer cooperation in between ore-processing and metallurgy units in the region, with the purpose of full rationalization, to effectively solve the environmental problems and better financial circulation, appears as one of the potential and acceptable options