Euromax resources, which is to mine precious metals in Macedonia, was first announced in 2007. Five years later, during the summer of 2012, a concession agreement was signed with the former Macedonian Minister of Economy - Valjon Saracini.
During a press conference, he stated for reporters that by 2017, the company will have invested 500 million dollars (or approx. 406 million euros according to the exchange rate at the time) in a gold-copper mine.
The government website, however, which had published news related to the same event, reported that in addition to investing 500 million dollars, the company was also to employ 500 workers.
As of 2015, Macedonian company Euromax rеsources had 26 employees, and the value of their non-current assets amounted to 13 million euros. In 2016, the number of employees rose to 37.
No information exists whether the company has received state aid; the only information available is that the site near the Strumica village of Ilovica has been given under concession for a period of three decades.
What was problematic with regard to the investment, was that neither the Macedonian Government nor investor Euromax rеsources had published the environmental study on the future Ilovica gold mine, a document which is to ensure that the open pit would not cause an environmental problem in the region.
Instead of the study, the Ministry of Environmental Protection released only the non-technical summary, which stated that among other things the company had considered extracting the metals using cyanidation. Cyanide is a deadly poison.
Environmentalists had long sought for all information regarding the complete technological process that will be conducted in the mine to be published as they feared that the mine could contaminate the near-by artificial lake, used as drinking water by several villages in the Strumica region. Today, the study is available on the website of the company.
In December 2014, the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) also invested in the mine. Two months later, in February 2015, a representative of Euromax rеsources, Steve Sharpe, in an interview for Kanal 5 informed that in the next 12-18 months, the investor will invest 20 million dollars for research, prepare a report and present it to the Government in June 2016.
In the same interview, Sharpe noted that the exploitation of gold from the mine is expected in 2017 and over the next 20 years to export ore worth $ 300 million a year.
In the same interview, Sharp stated that the extraction of gold from the mine was expected in 2017 and that the company expects, over the next 20 years, to export ore worth 300 million dollars annually.
The Macedonian Euromax rеsources is owned by two companies with the same name, one of which is located in London, UK, and the other is located on the tenth floor of a skyscraper in Vancouver. The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development has subscribed for approximately 20 percent of the ownership of common shares.
The Canadian Euromax rеsources company owns three companies, its London company and Euromax rеsources (Macedonia) and a company under the name of Omax International Limited in the Cayman Islands, in the western Caribbean Sea.