Eldorado Gold confirmed that Hellas Gold, a Greek subsidiary of the company, will undertake actions to suspend all its mining and development activities in Chalkidiki, northern Greece, commencing the week of August 24, 2015.
The suspension, which will affect Hellas Gold’s Stratoni Mine as well as the Skouries and Olympias projects, is a direct result of the revocation of its projects’ technical studies in Skouries by Greece’s Energy Ministry.
According to an announcement, “Hellas Gold is taking legal action against the Energy Ministry decision, including the filing of an injunction request before the Council of State, Greece’s Supreme Court on administrative and environmental matters. At this point, Eldorado is unable to provide guidance in respect to timing of any potential court decision.
Hellas Gold will continue to perform essential environmental protection works at its three sites in Chalkidiki in order to safeguard the environment and the public interest. Hellas Gold will, however, be forced to suspend the majority of its employees in Greece for a period of up to three months on terms, in accordance with Greek labor legislation.
Hellas Gold would be left with no option but to terminate employees if the permits were not reinstated. Currently, Hellas Gold and its contractors employ 2,000 persons directly in Chalkidiki. Eldorado estimates that 5,000 direct and indirect jobs have been created in Greece as a result of its mineral investment in the country.”
Eldorado CEO Paul Wright commented: “This unfortunate outcome is detrimental to the Company, Hellas Gold, our Greek employees, contractors, community supporters and the Greek society. However, Eldorado cannot and will not continue to allocate expenditures to our projects in Greece while the Energy Ministry is openly hostile to our activities, as evidenced by recent Ministry decisions. We sincerely hope to resume our activities in Chalkidiki at some point in the near future – preferably through constructive engagement with the Energy Ministry rather than a court decision.”
(Source: ANA-MPA)
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