Dejan Barjaktarovic, Geological Survey of Serbia – Ignorance, Laziness and Recklessness as Causes of Situation at Soko Mine and Kolubara

Ignorance, laziness and recklessness are the causes of the situation at the Soko Mine, where a tragedy occurred over a month ago, when eight miners were killed, as well as the problems in the Kolubara mining basin – Dr Dejan Barjaktarovic, the assistant director of the Sector for Regional Geology at the Geological Survey of Serbia, say in an interview for eKapija.

Dr Barjaktarevic is our leading expert for coal research, its origin and the establishment of coal basins, but he hasn’t had anything to do with the Soko Mine since 2005. As he said, prior to that, he prepared a study for this mine, in which he warned of the existence of methane sand, but that document, although it went through two expert analyses, was eventually “modified” – by putting in a considerably higher estimate of the coal reserves. At the time, the Czech investors were interested in this mine. In concrete terms, according to our interviewee, one coefficient was changed in the study, the bulk density, in order to get the wanted reserves. The Czechs gave up. In March 2005, Dejan Barjaktarovic was told that he can no longer deal with coal in Serbia, which he took very hard, ending up in a hospital in the fourth decade of his life. He turned to working abroad.

– At the time, I entered the pit twice and they once told me that they had lost the coal. They had done the works wrong, they had connected two layers, the roof layer and the main layer, into one – says Dr Barjaktarovic. – The main layer is sinking too deep, and there’s a sand horizon between those two layers, which is rich with methane. When the works get to the rift zone – the lines along which the breaking occurred – which means that the block has gone down, the rift is struck, the sand horizon is struck and the methane is thereby released. Now something disastrous has happened. The likelihood of methane breaking out so suddenly is minimal, but when it happened, nothing could be done.

According to our interviewee, such events can be prevented through so-called degasification. Through deep boreholes, dangerous gas is taken out – in the worst-case scenario, its quantity is reduced. At the same time, those are test boreholes, which show what the miners can expect.

– The Soko Mine had excellent equipment even then – now it has even more modern equipment, pencil-shaped counters – but they’re not taking it seriously enough. The problem lies in the ignorance and the lax attitude. It’s fine that they have the equipment, but their engineers are either not ready to follow what I told them – how the coal layer is “monitored”, or we’re talking recklessness – claims Dr Barjaktarovic. – I’ve been to Ostrava in the Czech Republic, and today there are 12 boreholes for degasification there, so they had fewer problems with methane, which was present, than with water bursting through, while the mine was operating.

The Geological Survey of Serbia, whose top management he belongs to, he says, is one of the five best institutions of its kind in Europe and everyone abroad wants to cooperate with its experts.

– I don’t want to keep silent. Recklessness, ignorance and laziness have led to the situations in Kolubara and Sokobanja as well. The World Bank too talks to me about underground-exploitation mines, because they know that I have worked for the Italians, the Czech, the Slovaks, for Indonesia, Mongolia… I really wanted to transfer knowledge to someone. It takes two hours, if someone wants to listed to what I have to say. This is not learned at the faculty, it’s a craft, a sub-specialization and practice. I really don’t expect that people who work have no motive at all to ask questions, to learn something new. I had a great teacher, in 2010, this company paid for my PhD studies, and I can’t do my job in Serbia.

Who deals with coal in Serbia then? – we asked our interviewee.

– In general, nobody. Mining geologists do, and they do something “by default” – a half of that is no good at all. A month and a half ago, a study on a field in Kolubara was supposed to be defended. Two offices next to me is the deputy director, an expert we consider one of the most knowledgeable people when it comes to mineral resources, not just in Serbia, and he was the vice-president of the commission. He returned the study, after talking to me. They came for consultations to me from Kolubara, to help them – I said what was wrong and they asked me to do a quick job. They wanted me to work for free, with my associates, on 72 boreholes, which I don’t want to do, out of principle. I wanted to transfer my knowledge to them as well. Now I am banned from even entering Kolubara.

Dr Barjaktarovic tells us that, in October, he attended the “Ugalj 2021” consultations of the Committee for Surface Exploitation and he talks about his impressions from that expert gathering:

– I was flabbergasted at the lack of quality of the research papers. In the afternoon, there was talk about a development strategy. An older gentleman from Kolubara asked to speak and told them that they could like him or not because he was part of the previous ruling authorities, but that there would be a problem with Kolubara by the end of the year.



What about mines in Serbia?

Serbia has coal for around 60 years more, eKapija’s interviewee says and adds:

– The World Bank has established a commission for the closing of certain mines in Serbia. The state has formed the Commission for Coals, and I’m not there, nor do I want to be under these conditions. I have been advocating for years for Stavalj in Sjenica to be activated (the Sjenica basin, Stavalj, was the topic of my PhD dissertation). According to my estimate, there are over 500 million tons of reserves there, there are problems with water, but exploitation is possible, in two ways. That is a very high-quality coal, just like that in Pljevlja. On several occasions, the Czech have come over and paid hundreds of thousands of euros for various studies. I also advocate for the Stamnica site (behind Petrovac upon Mlava) to be finally opened and for the Aleksinac basin to be re-opened, from the north, and finally, for the Soko Mine to work, but under expert supervision and for people to have good salaries and not for only a third of the employees to be miners. And where are we now? Serbia exports coal from Pljevlja, and Pljevlja is to close in 10 years. I am glad for those people, but it’s the state’s shame. The prices of coal are enormous…

Mirko Radonjic

Geološki zavod Srbije

Dejan Barjaktarović

Geological Survey of Serbia

Soko Mine

Sokobanja Mine

Kolubara

Kolubara basin

methane

sand horizon

roof layer

main layer

coal layer

coal monitoring

rift

World Bank

coal in Serbia

coal

coal mines

open pit mines

coal pits

degasification

Štavalj

Stamnica

Aleksinac mines

Aleksinac basin

Pljevlja Mine

Ugalj 2021

Committee for Surface Exloitation