Greece suspends work at Canadian-run gold mine

Shares of Eldorado Gold (EGO – Get Report) were falling 9.79% to $3.78 on heavy trading volume Wednesday after Greek officials halted activity at one of the gold miner’s operations in northern Greece.

“(Foreign investments) are necessary, essential, but the companies must also respect the terms to which they have committed so as not to harm the public interest and the environment”, he said.

Skourletis told reporters after a meeting with Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras that financially-troubled Greece – which recently secured its third worldwide bailout – welcomes foreign investment.

The project in Greece’s Halkidiki region includes gold mines in operation and two factories under construction that will enable the company to process gold and other minerals in Greece.

The ministry contends that the test work should have been done at site in Halkidiki instead it was completed at Outotec’s metallurgical and smelting facility in Finland. The testwork is a part of the technical studies pertaining to both the Skouries and Olympias projects.

In a statement late Wednesday, the Vancouver-based firm confirmed its subsidiary Hellenic Gold had been accused of violating the terms of certain required technical studies.

“We will once more take legal action…to safeguard the rights of Eldorado, Hellas Gold, our Greek employees and the communities and stakeholders that support our projects in Halkidiki”, he said.

“We have received numerous favorable decisions of the Council of State – Greece’s Supreme Court on administrative and environmental matters – over the course of the last three years, which confirm the legality of our activities in Halkidiki”, Wright said. “(It) is now at the stage of assessing the ministerial decision, with which we disagree, and which threatens the survival of 5,000 people”, he said, adding that the company would “defend (itself) with all legal means at its disposal”.