The board of Eldorado Gold on Thursday approved an investment decision and full restart of construction activities at the Skouries gold project, in Greece, representing the “next phase of growth” for the company.

The restart is conditional upon the initial drawdown of a €680-million term facility that Eldorado subsidiary Hellas Gold entered into with National Bank of Greece and Piraeus Bank as lead arrangers.

Drawdown is expected to occur in the first quarter of 2023.

The facility, which was previously announced, will provide 80% of the expected future funding required to complete the half-built Skouries project. The remaining 20% of project funding will be fully covered by Eldorado’s existing cash and future cash flow from operations.

“Skouries represents the next phase of growth at Eldorado, generating significant value for all of our stakeholders with robust project economics and providing many benefits to the local communities and economy in Greece,” said chairperson Steve Reid.

President and CEO George Burns said that having the participation of Greek lenders in the project provides aligned strategic.

“Our focus now shifts to project execution, with first production expected in the second half of 2025, followed by a ramp-up as we optimise facilities,” continued Burns.

“Once in production, Skouries will have a significant impact on Eldorado’s total gold production and cash cost profile and will diversify our business through revenue from copper.

“On behalf of the Eldorado and Hellas teams, I want to thank our local partners and workforce, the Aristotle Municipality, the Greek government, and National Bank of Greece and Piraeus Bank, for their support of the project. We look forward to working with them and developing a world-class mine in the region adhering to best-in-class sustainability standards,” said Burns.

Eldorado previously said that the company was confident in the feasibility study capital cost estimate of $845-million.

The Skouries project, part of the Kassandra Mines Complex, is located within the Halkidiki Peninsula of northern Greece. It is a gold/copper porphyry deposit to be mined using a combination of conventional openpit and underground mining techniques.

Based on the feasibility study, the total life-of-mine is about 20 years, and it is expected to produce, on average, 140 000 oz/y of gold and 67-million pounds of copper a year.

From first production, the payback period of the project is less than four years, and it is expected to generate, on average, $215-million of free cash flow a year for the first five years of operations.