The amount invested until now in the Mines of Kassandra, in Northern Chalkidiki, by “Hellas Gold” is 700 million dollars, while it is estimated that the total invested amount shall exceed the 1 billion dollars. This was remarked, at the podium of the 1st Thessaloniki Summit, by the vice-chairman and CEO of the company, Mihalis Theodorakopoulos who reminded that, when the production begins, 30%-35% of the overall revenues shall be directed to the Greek economy each year. “In the next 20 years, approximately 1.6 billion Euros shall be paid in direct taxes and 1.5 billion Euros in employee salaries in the wider area of Aristotle, 1 billion Euros in contributions to social security funds and 2.5 billion Euros for local services, contractors and shops. Only in the current year, 30 million Euros have been spent for payments to local suppliers and, for what matters, at a phase where the investment is not at its peak. In parallel, 150 million Euros shall be invested in the next 20 years in projects of environmental improvement”, he added.
He also mentioned that the licensing process of the investment has already begun in 2004, but almost a decade was need for its completion. “Licensing in Greece is not an easy matter and this has not only to do with the current government”, he said characteristically.
As he also said, the green light for the investment was eventually granted in 2012 “and then began the beautiful adventure of the investment” with many legal actions against it, which resulted to the fact that “Hellas Gold” itself applied to the State Council, where 16 decisions were issued in favor of the company.
[SOURCE: O LOGOS, OCTOBER 15, 2016]
