Albchrome History
With the first signs of the mineral that appeared in 1942, the chrome mine in Bulqiza started its activity in the distant year 1948, three years after the end of the Second World War. As an official entity, it was first named “Bulqiza Geological Enterprise” in 1956. With the growing activity through years, it was necessary to build and put into operation Burrel Ferrochrome Plant in 1979 and Elbasan Ferrochrome Plant in 1988. Albchrome, was first founded in the beginning of 1991 as a state company under the former name ‘Albkrom sh.a.’, when, with the fall of communist regime, the path for private business and professional development of Industry in Albania, was opened and free. Between 2000 and 2001, the most important assets of chrome industry infrastructure in Albania, including Bulqiza Chrome Mine, Ferrochrome Plant of Burrel, Ferrochrome Plant of Elbasan, were given to a private Italian company by the Government of the Republic of Albania, by means of a Concessionary Agreement entered in force between the Ministry of Public Economy and Privatisation and the Concessionary ‘Darfo S.P.A.’ (today ‘Albchrome Holding Shpk’), approved by the Parliament of Albania by Law no.8590, dated 23.03.2000, amended and Law no. 8791, dated 10.05.2001, amended.
In 2007 the Austrian – Russian group took over the concessions and signed the beginning of technologic and industrial development of all the assets of this concessions. The name of the concessionary company was changed from ‘Darfo Shpk’ to ‘Albanian Chrome Shpk’ (ACR). This way, under the Austrian and Russian industrial expertise, two out of three furnaces installed in Elbasan Ferro – Chrome Plant were refurbished and their technology was changed to provide a higher performance and production. Also Bulqiza Mine experienced a reconstruction of the whole exploitation scheme. Important investments were done for safety, exploration and ore processing fields, making the company more efficient.
In 2009, ACR had a change in ownership, and DCM (Austrian investing group) took over 100 % of the shares of the Concessionary, becoming the only shareholder of ACR. DCM continued to improve and implement new projects and ideas to further develop the company into a modern European industrial business with high perspective for the future. In 2013, due to difficulties in actualizing investments, DCM sold the whole shares of the Concessionary to Balkan Finance Investment Group. The name of the concessionary company became ‘Albchrome Shpk’.
In January 2022, Albchrome is acquired by Yılmaden Holding, a subsidiary of YILDIRIM GROUP of Companies and one of the global leaders in high-quality high carbon ferrochrome production, as well as high-quality chromite ore mining, a conglomerate based in Istanbul, Turkey. Yılmaden’s focus is on exploring, mining, and processing mineral resources with minimal impact on the environment. The Holding is currently comprised of 11 companies, including AlbChrome, in 9 countries: Turkey, the USA, Sweden, Russia, China, Kazakhstan, Colombia, Switzerland, Kosovo, and Albania.
