According to an old Serbian fairy tale, God tells a poor man who enters a gold
mine that no matter what he chooses to do inside, he'll be sorry when he leaves.
If he takes some gold, he'll be sorry for not taking more; if he doesn't, he'll be
sorry for not taking any at all.
Modern Serbia now finds itself in a similar situation to the hero of that ancient tale.
Experts have revealed that parts of South-eastern Serbia lie on two billion tons of oil shale that could
be processed into oil worth roughly 60 billion dollars in the next decade.
Further, the introduction and implementation of sufficient technology to turn the crude into derivates
could reap between 120 and 180 billion dollars, according to studies by several domestic and
international mining institutes and the Serbian ministry of environment and mining, which kept this
secret carefully guarded until early January.
"It is our goal to introduce the most modern international technology so that oil shale can become a
resource that will significantly improve the energetic balance of Serbia," Oliver Dulic, minister of
environment and mining, said last week on a visit to the small town of Aleksinac, some 210 kilometres
south-east of the capital.
The town and its surroundings coalmines, which have been closed since a fatal disaster in the 1980s
claimed the lives of 90 miners, lie on the largest bulk of oil shale reserves.
"Our estimates say that oil shale could be exploited for several decades, with an annual production of
between 500,000 and 600,000 tons of crude, 100 megawatts of electricity and enough thermal energy
to heat Aleksinac and neighbouring villages," Dulic added.
Yearning for growth
For the last few years, Serbia has barely managed to stay afloat in the tides of the global economic
downturn, paying the price for moderate economic improvement with high unemployment and modest
salaries.
The country's unemployment rate soared to 23.7 percent in November 2011, up from just 19 percent in
2010. This is the highest level of unemployment since former dictator Slobodan Milosevic was ousted
more than a decade ago, the national statistics bureau said Monday.
A breakdown of the data revealed the youth population to suffer the most, with an unemployment rate
of 51.9 percent for the 15-24 age |