The Albanian government has signed a concessions deal with a Turkish-Chinese joint venture company for the development of chrome mines and chrome processing plants.

    Turkish group K¨¹r¨¹m Energy and Chinese company Sichuan Jiannanchun International Group will form a joint venture called Illyria Minerals Industry to invest €20 million ($26.5 million) in the region, the Albanian ministry economy, trade and energy said last week.

    The deal gives the company the right to develop the Kalimash chrome mine, the Vlahn  chrome mine and to renovate the Golaj chrome and copper processing plant, which will be converted to only process chrome.

    The mines will produce around 210,000 tpy of chrome ore. Once the processing plants have been upgraded, they could produce up to 60,000 tpy of ferro-chrome.

    No time frame was given for the development of the projects.

    The Albanian ministry welcomed the investment, noting that Sichuan Jiannanchun¡¯s revenue of €6 billion exceeds the entire Albanian state budget of €4 billion.