Bulgaria Environmentalists File Gold Mine Complaint with EC

Bulgaria's Center for Environmental Information and Education has logged a complaint with the EC over the “Chelopech” gold mine.

The NGO is protesting the gold mining complex permit issued in October by Bulgaria's Environmental Minister, Nona Karadzhova, for a cyanide-based technology installation by the “Chelopech Mining” company. They are asking the European Commissions help over the permit's interference with Bulgaria's long-term national interests and the threat it poses for people's health and the environment.

In the beginning of November, a team of magistrates from the Supreme Administrative Court annulled the environmental impact assessment of mining activities and the decision from the summer of 2008 to expand the processing of coper and gold ore by the use of cyanide technology.

The Court ruled that the revocation comes over outdated data, violations of manufacturing rules, and the use of the cyanide method.

The Environment Ministry has appealed the court decision. The rule on the appeal will be final and will decide the destiny of the use of cyanide technology for gold mining in Chelopech.

“Chelopech Mining” is a subsidiary of Canadian Dundee Precious Metals. The Toronto-based Dundee is an international mining company engaged in the acquisition, exploration, development and mining of precious metals in Bulgaria and Armenia, with exploration activities in Serbia.