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GreekReporter.comBusinessEldorado Gold Threatens…To Stay in Greece

Eldorado Gold Threatens…To Stay in Greece

eldorado-feugei-708Eldorado Gold, a Canadian-based gold mining company with assets in Europe, Asia and South America, announced that it suspends its mine construction in Skouries as permit delays continue and warned that it would do the same at its other projects if it does not receive a permit by the end of March.
For the record, the company had received approval through its subsidiary Hellas Gold for its Environmental Impact Study in 2011 but the Greek Environment and Energy Ministry and other government agencies have not fully fulfilled their obligation to the company with regard to the timely issuance of appropriate permits.
In a written statement released by Eldorado Gold’s President and CEO Paul Wright, it is claimed that the Greek Environment and Energy Ministry has adopted a confrontation stance since the beginning of 2015, a development that had negative effects on the company’s budget and timeframe of the project. In so doing, Eldorado Gold directly blames the SYRIZA-led government for the company’s decision to suspend its mine construction in Skouries.
Wright went on to note that Eldorado’s operations in northern Greece led to the creation of “nearly 2000 new jobs and that more than 700 million euros were invested for the development of the Skouries and Olympias mines.”
Be that as it may, the company has made it clear that it does not intend to leave Greece. As any savvy capitalist investor knows, Greece is in dire need of foreign investments and it will take a highly determined and committed government to be able to pick and choose the nature of investments coming to Greece. In the end, the SYRIZA-led government will probably come around and accommodate the goals of Eldorado Gold.
The problem of attracting foreign investments in Greece is simply structural: lots of red tape and sheer incompetence across the public administration sector.
Nevertheless, the critical question about Eldorado Gold is whether this type kind of economic activity is congruent with sustainable development. While it is true that Eldorado Gold’s presence has created nearly 2000 new jobs in northern Greece, its mining operations on the Chalkidiki peninsula, one of the richest natural places in Greece, is having serious environmental impacts and adverse social effects on farming, fishing and forestry. Hence why locals and environmental groups have protested with such great fervor against Eldorado Gold’s presence in northern Greece; hence also why Greek governments have been slow to issue the necessary permits.
In sum, things are not as simple as they seem to be by the announcements made by Eldorado Gold’s CEO. Greece and the Greek people would definitely be better served if the issue of mining operations was examined, discussed and analyzed in a serious and careful manner by experts and activists alike, instead of relying on the truth behind it, either on corporate or government announcements.

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