Greece issues licences for Eldorado’s Olympias project

TORONTO (miningweekly.com) – The Greek Ministry of Environment and Energy has issued Canadian miner Eldorado Gold subsidiary Hellas Gold with the required permits to move forward with its Olympias mine project, in northern Greece.

Hellas on Tuesday confirmed that it was now free to properly resume construction of the project, which it threatened to suspend should it not receive permits by the end of March.

Eldorado had stated that Greece had been delaying the necessary permits for several projects in the indebted country, and in January announced that it would halt construction of its Skouries project.

The company expected first ore production from the 385 000 t/y Olympias mine in the first quarter of 2017, which would be treated in the renovated plant.

The Vancouver-based miner had been in a dispute with the government over plans to develop gold mines in a forested area of northern Greece, with the government citing environmental concerns over the project.

Since 2012, Eldorado had invested about $700-million to develop the Skouries and Olympias mines and planned to invest another $1-billion in the projects.

Last year, the Greek government cancelled Eldorado's permit over environmental tests on the project performed outside of the country. However, Greece’s top administrative court overturned the government's decision in January.

Eldorado in February reported that it had received a building permit for a processing plant at Skouries, but said the project remained on the back burner while the company awaited the timely issuance of pending routine permits and licences, which were necessary for the project to restart.