Canadian mining group Dundee Precious Metals lodged a complaint with the European Commission against the Bulgarian government, the company said in a statement on its website.

The company claims Bulgaria's Environment Minister Dzhevdet Chakarov failed to issue environmental permits for Dundee's two mining projects in the country, despite the company fulfilling all the requirements for them.

Dundee owns the exploration licence for a gold mine at Krumovgrad in southern Bulgaria, 25 kilometers southeast of Kardzhali, and a gold and copper mine at Chelopech, 50 kilometers east of Sofia, back in 2005.

Chakarov's failure to act breaches five articles of the European Community Treaty and Bulgaria's association treaty with the European Union, Dundee said.

"We have made a significant investment in Bulgaria and plan to invest more. Despite following all governmental guidelines, we have been refused the necessary environmental permits to expand our operation at Chelopech and develop our project at Krumovgrad", company CEO Jonathan Goodman said.

Dundee asked the European executive to investigate the "ongoing failure of the minister to perform his lawful obligations."

The Commission will then decide whether to start infringement procedures against Bulgaria for failure to comply with the bloc's treaties.

The Chelopech project has won the backing of the miners in the region, but is strongly opposed by environmental activists, who fear that Dundee's cyanide leaching technology was an environmental disaster in the making.

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