The Rhodopes are often referred to as a magical mountain. Breathtakingly beautiful, one-time realm of the mythical Orpheus, it is still the source of invaluable natural resources. What is perhaps the archaeological discovery of the century was made near Kroumovgrad not long ago – the oldest gold mine in Europe and to boot – there is still gold there to be mined! The controversy that has been raging over its future comes as an illustration of the dilemma that is now facing the Rhodopes – whether to opt for sustainable tourism or to stick to its mines. Because in the world of today the two simply don’t mesh together.

Today the mountain is rich mostly in non-ferrous metal ores. In the 1960s Bulgaria was among the world’s leading exporters of lead and zinc. But exploitation of these mines was excessive and over-aggressive to the bewitching mountain. At the time the Berlin wall fell, 1989, the prices of lead and zinc plummeted. And the assets of the GORUBSO mining enterprise, once created with Soviet help, were sold dirt cheap. People started moving away from the region. “Mining in the Rhodopes currently stands at around one fifth of what it used to be,” says Dimitar Subev, one of the authors of a survey conducted at the suggestion of the Friedrich Ebert Foundation.

“But without mining, people in the Rhodopes are left without any means of livelihood,” he adds. “Migration is their only option, or they can revert to home farming of the most primitive kind to put food on the table.”

Even though after 2004 non-ferrous metal prices went through the roof, miners’ salaries in these parts are low – around BGN 800 monthly – and could never be a motivation for young people. And one more thing – the environmental frenzy of the past is not to be forgotten easily, says another participant in the survey, Rouslan Yordanov. And the biggest problem of all are the still functioning tail ponds.

“The tail pond near Erma River has been functioning for 50 years; it actually flows into the Erma River. Under latter-day law, it should not even exist. The tail pond near Kurdjali poses a dramatic threat – it is a mere one hundred meters or so from nearby villages. Until recently it did not even have a safeguard system and the dust from the mine tailings was freely scattered to the four winds. Unfortunately, on the other side of these villages is the regional garbage dump – any way you look at it, this is genocide. The derelict state mines are another big problem. They are nobody’s concern, consequently pollution in the mining regions is permanent.”

In consequence, people living in this area have serious health problems and silicosis still exists.

At the same time proposals have been pouring in from the country and abroad for opening more mines, the investments for which run to millions. Some say this is a new Klondike. Others, like the people from the Bulgarian-Dutch project New Thracian Gold are staking on the pristine nature around, an invaluable resource for sustainable tourism, as they put it, that abounds in mineral springs and takes us back to historical events hundreds and thousands of years ago. An unlimited resource, unlike any of the ores and minerals here, says Mariana Hristova from the Civic Initiative for a Ban on Shale Gas, and adds there is an industrial alternative – recycling the growing mountains of electronic waste, which contain countless precious elements.

“Around 20 grams of gold can be extracted by recycling one ton of electronic waste, not to mention all other precious metal alloys,” she says. “By way of comparison – a maximum of 3-4 grams of gold is derived from the extraction of one ton of gold ore. Moreover, alongside the gold ore in Chile, Bulgarian gold ore has the highest arsenic content in the world. That is the reason why it cannot be processed without the use of cyanide technology. Not to mention the extremely low concession fees on the deposits, from which the state benefits next to nothing.”

Besides sustainability, tourism offers a broader range of jobs for women in the region, which have so far been subjected to primitive exploitation in dressmaking sweatshops across the region. Many of them would stand a better chance in the hotel and restaurant business, organic farming or the local arts and crafts. The trouble is that environmental and cultural tourism in these parts is still in its infancy.

English Milena Daynova