Bulgarian Commodity Trade OOD was our mining company with its headquarter in Bulgaria. The company has been working on an exploration allotment of 72 km² in the western region of the country close to the capital city Sofia before it had been sold.

Bulgaria is a full member of the European Union and is said to be the most political stable Eastern Member in the EU. The country still seems to be poor, but with its natural resources it is on a very good way to economic vitality. Though the future of the country is golden, the vage level will stay at a low level for at least two decades.

The Bulgarian Commodity Trade OOD was privately owned by Marian Damyanov and Ingo Wolf. Both scientists dedicated their lives to Geology and Physics.

Marian Damyanov started his first company Start Consult in Pernik and assisted the local mining companies with analysis and planning. His employees are geophysicists, geochemists and engineers. Marian Damyanov keeps best contacts to the local politicians.

Ingo Wolf runs the Commodity Trade GmbH in Germany to sell precious metals to private and institutional investors. His engagement is supported by the own TV Channel www.commodity-tv.net.

He started as a systems integrator and service provider with special focus on net television and IP-TV content providing. The company is still based in Munich, Germany, and currently has more than 30 full time employees and some partner companies and subcontractors.

Founded as Bulgarian Commodity Trade OOD in 2013 the company got the right to explore and expoilt an area of 72 km² in the copper belt. Historical data showed rich deposits of gold, antimony and other metals. The measurements had been done for nearly 20 years with a team of 30 civil servants. During the last year the data has been validated by Samples that had been taken at the surface and in galleries. The results of the work are maps with exact positions and percentages of the metals.

Until the beginning, the business was entirely financed by internally generated cash. Until it was sold, the company remained debt-free. Over the first half year of exploration it has become clear that outside capital was needed to accomodate the growth.

In 2014, Bulgarian Commodity Trade OOD wanted to enforce the exploration of the complete region. To finance the work it would have been necessary to spend 15 million Euro in further exploration. For the company there were three options to reach the aim:

1. First is the selling of the company what had been done.

2. The second option was to finance with outside capital.

3. The third option was to operate the complete mine with just one financial partner with equity capital.

 

SWOT Profile

Strengths

Covering the entire value chain of exploration

Perfect infrastructure of streets, hotels and water delivered with a close by river

Cross selling over several business divisions and metals

Strategic partnerships with international mining companies

Fast time to market from exploration to mining

Ownership of best historical data in the complete field of exploration

No shortage of qualified personal due to mining

Reasonable staff costs through employed scientists in “start consult”

 

Weaknesses

High capital intensity in production and further exploration

Diversification makes business vulnerable if it will be tried to work on several metals at the same time

New employees fully productive only after six months

Drilling during the further exloration is expensive and takes time

The team has to run a mine for the first time, so a partner is needed

 

Opportunities

Perfect documents in historical data proven by new analysis

More than 30 years of experience in the team

Exploiting synergies between new technologies in exploration and historical data

Lean corporate structure allows flexibility and speed

Creation of a company group brings a focus to each activity

Best contacts in the world of mining in the team

 

Threats

Warrenties for renaturation have to be given to the government

Necessity of selling one spot to activate money for the growth process