A rally of employees of the public joint-stock company Sukhaya Balka started near the building of the State Service for Geology and Deposits of Ukraine in Kyiv on September 19.
The miners are demanding to implement the court ruling permitting the issue of deposit use permits, which the authority has not implemented due to unknown reasons.
“We want to work honestly. We want the head of the State Service for Geology and Deposits come to us and look at the eyes of these people, hard workers, and say why they do not allow them working,” Chairman of the primary trade union of employees of metal and mining industries of Ukraine Viktor Schastlyvy said at the rally.
Over 250 employees of the enterprise arrived to Kyiv to take part in the rally.
The situation with the blocking of the mine’s operations occurred after the fact that in August 2016 the enterprise had expired previous permits. The top management of Sukhaya Balka appealed to the State Service for Geology and Deposits asking to extend them and in 60 days, the company appealed to court. Dnipropetrovsk district administrative court granted the mine’s claim and obliged the State Service for Geology and Deposits to extend the period of validity of the deposit use permits until 2036. On March 23, the higher administrative court of Ukraine upheld this decision. However, according to Schastlyvy, the company still does not have the opportunity to work legally. (Interfax-Ukraine/Ukrainian metal)
