TORONTO (miningweekly.com) – Canadian gold miner Eldorado Gold on Thursday announced that it had received the building permit for the Skouries mine in northern Greece from local authorities.
The permit was issued by the planning office of the Aristotle municipality, in Halkidiki, Northern Greece. However, the TSX- and NYSE-listed miner said the $600-million Skouries project would remain on care and maintenance as the company awaited the timely issuance of pending routine permits and licences, which were necessary for the project to restart.
Eldorado stated that the building permit was issued as a direct consequence of its victory in the Supreme Court of Greece on administrative and environmental matters. The building permit that would allow subsidiary Hellas Gold to complete the construction of the Skouries processing plant had already been delayed for more than three years.
In January, Eldorado advised that it would suspend most of its construction projects in Greece, owing to the actions and/or inactions of Greece's Ministry of Energy and Environment.
The Vancouver-based company became frustrated with the inefficacy of the Ministry to issue routine permits and licences in a timely manner, compounded by the Ministry’s suspension last year of some of Hellas’s permits and licences.
To date, Eldorado had invested $300-million in the Skouries project, for which it budgeted $33-million in 2016 for care-and-maintenance costs, which were expected to average $1-million a month, as well as other expenses and demobilisation costs.