The Council of State (CoS), Greece ’s highest administrative court, on Monday abrogated a ministerial decision by former productive reconstruction, environment and energy minister Panos Skourletis to revoke the operating license of the Hellas Gold mining company in Halkidiki prefecture of northern Greece, according to sources.
However, responding later to the report, the president of the CoS said the final decision has not been issued yet. “On the case of Hellas Gold … no decisions have been issued yet. The conference on these cases has not been completed. Any other report does not reflect reality,” Nikolaos Sakellariou said in a statement.
Revocation of the gold mining license was based on the fact that the company did not conduct tests on deposits from the Olympiada and Skouries sites on its premises, but rather at a facility in Finland. The CoS ruled that this was not justification enough for revoking the license. The publication of the ruling is pending. The ministerial decision was announced in September.
Hellas Gold is a subsidiary of Canadian multinational Eldorado Gold.
(Source: ANA-MPA)
By Anastassios Adamopoulos – Nov 3, 2015, greekreporter.com
