By L. Kalamara
[email protected]
Canadian mining giant Eldorado Gold expects the arbitration process pitting its Greek subsidiary, Hellas Gold, and the Greek state to be completed by early April, as it announced this week in presenting results for the previous year.
Moreover, the Vancouver-based miner said it will submit, on March 29, a comprehensive technical study for its Skouries gold mining concession in northern Greece, the deposit and complex which has attracted the "lion's share" of opposition by a portion of the local community as well as various anti-capitalist groups and environmental advocates in the country.
The plan will reportedly include revisions and forecasts "a significantly reduced environmental footprint" from its mining activities at Skouries.
One of the measures, according to mining experts, will include a process for solidifying waste/tailing ponds at the Skouries site, in order to improve their management and to avoid the risk of leakage into the environment.
Such works, if confirmed, would cost Eldorado Gold an extra 110 to 120 million USD.
Assuming that the bureaucratic- and lawsuit-plagued investment proceeds, the Canadian miner said the Skouries project will need 689.2 million USD to reach full development of an open pit and underground mining in the first phase, beyond the 460 million USD already pumped into the project.
Moreover, Eldorado Gold said its investment in the northern Greece prefecture of Halkidiki has resulted in the creation of 1,000 direct jobs during the construction phase, and 700 jobs, on average, when in operation.
