ATHENS – Unable to meet a promise to immediately begin the long-stalled 8-billion euro ($8.91 billion) development of the abandoned Hellenikon International Airport site, Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis’ government now has its eyes set on rebooting a stymied gold mine.
That project, by Canada’s Eldorado Gold, is based in northern Greece but was blocked by the former ruling Radical Left SYRIZA amid fierce opposition to the work by activists, environmentalists and local residents fearful it would harm tourism.
“We want this investment to come to life. We want to tie up loose ends,” New Democracy Energy Minister Kostis Hatzidakis told SKAI TV. “It is a New Democracy commitment,” he said after he and a deputy met with Eldorado’s President and CEO George Burns and other executives, the news agency Reuters said.
Vancouver-based Eldorado has two operating mines and two development projects in northern Greece but has struggled with permit delays at one location, Skouries, for years, where there have been violent clashes between protesters and riot police.
The investment is one of the biggest in the country and seen as another linchpin in Mitsotakis’ vow to make Greece business-friendly and bring in investors scared off by a 29 percent corporate rate he said he would cut after it was raised by SYRIZA, which has hardcore elements also wanting to keep out foreign companies.
Eldorado halted construction in November 2017 at Skouries, which has reserves of 3.7 million ounces of gold and 1.7 billion pounds of copper, citing mainly environmental permit delays, another in a list of major foreign companies facing SYRIZA roadblocks.
The energy ministry said the government “underlined its will to support the investment with respect, of course, to all environmental terms.” Greece accounts for 42 percent of Eldorado’s operating net asset value.
In September, the company said it would seek 750 million euros ($836 million) from the government in damages it attributed to the delays, before Mitsotakis took office and as his government is moving to aid the company.
He made the gold mine a key part of his campaign pledges just ahead of the July 7 snap elections in which he ousted Tsipras and SYRIZA, which had blocked major projects and tourism developments for 4 ½ years.
At the time, Mitsotakis was speaking from the northern prefecture of Halkidiki about the Skouries Mine that is under the control of Hellas Gold, working for Eldorado Gold.
Mitsotakis said the investment will be completed, but “without any short-cuts” in terms of environmental protection so as to assuage worries of rivals and critics, said the business newspaper Naftemporiki.
“Your municipality was split and divided in the past by certain quarters, who deliberately aimed to divide you, turning an investment, with many positives and whatever negatives, into a political symbol,” Mitsotakis said.
Pro-reform, pro-business and pro-market, Mitsotakis said he would bring in foreign investors critical to helping speed a slow recovery from a more than 9-year-long economic crisis during which Greece survived with the aid of three international bailouts of 326 billion euros ($368.34 billion) that ended on Aug. 20, 2018. He said he would also bring Greece back to markets as well as speeding the sale of some state enterprises to investors.
Read more at thenationalherald.com
RELATED TOPICS: Greece, Greek tourism news, Tourism in Greece, Greek islands, Hotels in Greece, Travel to Greece, Greek destinations, Greek travel market, Greek tourism statistics, Greek tourism report
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