By L. Kalamara
[email protected]
Eldorado Gold Corp.'s Greek subsidiary, Hellas Gold, is expected to unveil its investment plan in early December for its troubled mining concessions in the country, although initial reports point to the same level of investment in 2019 as in 2018, i.e. 80 million USD.
Successive legal challenges by local governments and private citizens - all of which were struck down at the Council of State (CoS) - continued delays in the issuance of licenses by relevant ministries and a refusal of the regional authority to allow for exploratory mining in the northeast Thrace province have plagued Hellas Gold's operations in Greece for years.
Hellas Gold has mining concessions at the Olympias, Stratoni and Skouries sites, among others, in eastern Halkidiki prefecture of northern Greece.
Conversely, the Canadian mining multinational, during a presentation of its Q3 2018 results, announced investments of 550 million euros in neighboring Turkey between 2019 and 2021.
Vancouver-based Eldorado Gold last month demanded 750 million euros in damages from the Greek state over what it calls delays and obstacles in the issuance of licenses for its Skouries gold mining operation. The damages include out-of-pocket costs and loss of profits.
The action is called an application for payment, and does not generate legal proceedings.
"The application represents a good-faith attempt to resolve the matter with the Greek state as it relates to costs incurred resulting from permit delays to our Skouries project. Eldorado has always acted in a manner consistent with finding a mutually-agreeable solution to responsibly developing Skouries. We hope that this matter can be resolved in an amicable manner without needing to go down the route of arbitration." Eldorado Gold president and CEO George Burns said, in a press release found on the company's website.
In a press release last week, the Canadian mining multinational noted that "... Despite repeated attempts by Eldorado and its Greek subsidiary, Hellas Gold, to engage constructively with the Greek government, the Ministry of Energy and Environment ... and other government agencies, delays continue in issuing routine permits and licenses for the construction and development of the Skouries and Olympias projects in Halkidiki, northern Greece. These permitting delays have negatively impacted Eldorado's project schedules and costs, ultimately hindering the Company's ability to effectively advance development and operation of these assets.
"With the exception of a care and maintenance program and necessary environmental safeguarding costs, Eldorado and its Board of Directors have decided that under present conditions no additional investment will be made into the Kassandra Mines (Olympias, Skouries, Stratoni) in Halkidiki, the Perama Hill and Sapes projects in Thrace, and any exploration activity in the country. Funds that were budgeted to be invested into community spending and infrastructure development will be phased out. Similarly, tax revenues at the municipal, regional and national levels will also be affected."
