And of course there is always a report issued too
Daily Archives: July 30, 2012
Iran and Syria's Nerve Gas is Made in Europe
yria threatens to use chemical weapons, including lethal gas and germs, against “external forces”. And the unthinkable becomes much more concrete in Israel.
The gas mask distribution centers have increased their activities in the last few days. Health authorities may start inoculation of soldiers and emergency care personnel against smallpox. Family drug kits, including antibiotics against anthrax, may be delivered door-to-door. The Education Ministry will prepare material for all students instructing them on the ABC’s of chemical and biological warfare. The message is clear: Israel should be prepared for the worst.
The Germans used chlorine gas against the Allies in World War I; in 1937, they developed nerve gas, the most deadly of all. Mustard gas was used by the Egyptians in the war with Yemen. But by far the worst were the Iraqis in the Iran-Iraq war, when nerve gas killed untold numbers. Saddam Hussein was also responsible for the gassing of thousands of Kurdish civilians in 1988.
The sarin gas attacks by the Aum Shinrikyo cult in Japan in 1994-1995, the anthrax attack in the United States in October 2001 and the chlorine attacks by al-Qaida in Iraq in 2006-2007 are a few examples that serve to remind us that the use of weapons of mass destruction can be a reality in today’s Middle East.
Already in May 2011, then US Defense Secretary Robert Gates warned about the possibility that Hizbullah is armed with chemical warheads. Syria’s stockpiles could fall into the hands of al-Qaeda, which is involved in the fighting, a military faction, or a post-Assad regime controlled by Islamists.
It’s the worst kind of nightmare.
A four milligram droplet of VX kills in under an hour. The first symptoms include drooling, sweating, difficulty breathing and the constriction of pupils to zombie pinpoints. Then come gastrointestinal spasms, vomiting, convulsions and asphyxiation. Unlike other nerve gases, such as sarin, VX evaporates slowly so winds can’t blow it away. And unlike sarin, VX penetrates the skin.
What very few people know is that European companies and scientists gave Iran, Syria, Libya and Iraq the material to attempt to kill the Jews, again.
In 1992 a 100-page report, prepared by the Paris-based Middle East Defence News, listed about 300 European firms which the centre said it believed had “played a significant role in the unconventional weapons programmes in Iran, Syria and Libya”.
Germany topped the list of suppliers with 100, the report said, then 29 French, 22 British, 13 Italian and 13 Swiss.
German companies have played a crucial role in helping Iran to build a chemical weapons industry, and have illegally supplied nerve gas precursor chemicals,” the report said. It said France had played a “crucial role…in helping Syria to develop both a chemical weapons and a biological weapons capability”.
The West German firm Degussa supplied of chemicals to Libya used to manufacture poison gas. This company also owned a 42.5 per cent share in the Degesch company, which supplied the Zyklon B gas used in the death camps. Degesch is the acronym for “Deutsche Gesellschaft fuer Schaedlingsbekaempfung”, a company for the extermination of vermin.
It developed the method of using hydrogen cyanide, Zyklon B, as an ingredient in its fumigation gas for buildings and ships. The gas it supplied to Auschwitz was used in the killing of two million Jews.
“For years, Iraqi officers had asked us how it had been with the gassing of the Jews.” said Maj. Gen. Karl-Heinz Nagler, former head of the East German Army’s chemical service, who had trained the Iraqi Army in chemical warfare for 15 years.
The manufacturing of di-fluoro – from which nerve gas is obtained – requires resistant glass components. Two German companies gave these to the Syrians.
French scientific institutes also played a role, through scientific exchanges.
In 1988, the Wall Street Journal revealed that German companies sold Saddam what he needed to perfect new types of poison gas, including manufacturing equipment for hydrogen cyanide, the active ingredient of Zyklon B, the gas used in Hitler’s crematoriums.
In 1990, members of the German parliament demanded a confidential briefing from Economics Minister Helmut Haussmann. What they heard surpassed their worst fears. Haussmann read off a list of companies believed to have supplied Iraq and Syria with the means to manufacture arms.
A German company was the chief supplier for six plants in Samarra, Iraq, that make nerve and mustard gases, gases already used against the Kurds and the Iranians. We know that some of Saddam’s chemical weapons have been moved to Syria.
In 1996, the weekly ‘Stern’ revealed the German involvement in a toxic gas facility in Aleppo, similar to that of Tarhuna in Libya.
According to Raul Hilberg, the use of pesticides in the Final Solution was no accident. In German propaganda Jews had frequently been portrayed as insects. Hans Frank, Head of the German Occupation Government in Poland, and Heinrich Himmler, head of the SS, had stated that the Jews were parasites who had to be exterminated like vermin.
Today, again, Jews are described by Islamists as sub-humans, with expressions like “pig,” “cancer,” “filth”, “microbes” or “vermin”.
Without the European chemical companies, there would be no Syrian and Iranian germs and gas’ threat to Israel.
We can be partners in the Jewish struggle against the new apocalypse. Or we can be part of it. The European companies and scientists have made their choice.
Let’s hope that one day we will not have to judge these Europeans responsible for another catastrophe, like the one facilitated with Degesch’s Zyklon B.
Source
Arabs eye pot of Greek gold
WHEN it comes to its natural beauty, the northern peninsula of Halkidiki has a reputation for luring tourists from northern Europe and Russia. But when it comes to its underground treasures, the interest originates from a very different direction – Qatar, in particular. The Arabs, however, are not likely to receive the same warm welcome in the region that the Russians do. The reason, according to locals, is that their plans to dig for gold will irreversibly damage the natural environment.
The deal struck on October 1 between Qatar Holdings LLC and European Goldfields breathes new life into the underperforming mining industry of northern Greece.
Qatar Holdings, the prime vehicle for investments made by the Arab state’s sovereign wealth fund, will invest 1 billion dollars in London-based European Goldfields, including 600 million euros to finance operations in Kassandra, 110 kilometres east of Thessaloniki, where the London-based EG has a permit to mine gold.
The Qatari company will buy a 10 percent stake in European Goldfields from Greek building firm Ellaktor, with a call option to buy another 5 percent that would lift its stake to 32 percent.
The agreement is designed to give European Goldfields the working capital to push ahead with production at the three Kassandra mines, which include the gold mining projects of Olympiada and Skouries and the copper-zinc mining project at Stratoni. All mines are owned by Hellas Gold, a 95 percent-owned subsidiary of European Goldfields. Production is scheduled to begin in the second quarter of 2012. When in full operation, the project is expected to employ about 1,800 people.
Local citizens seem ready to do everything possible to annul this project. The Movement of Active Citizens of Kassandra has vowed to fight to save their region from “the wannabe gold diggers”. In an announcement on their site on October 4, making a pun on a current labour bill, the group said: “The lethal investment in Halkidiki will be put on hold, because the community here is ready to fight for its life and future.”
This is not the first time that the residents of Kassandra have reacted to the mining projects near the area where they live. In 1996, the three Kassandra mines were sold via public tender to the mining company TVX Hellas, a subsidiary of Canadian mining company TVX Gold. Following lawsuits filed by citizens’ organisations, the Council of State annulled the mining project permits in 2002, citing as a reason the environmental impact that the project would have. TVX Gold ceased financing the project, causing the bankruptcy of its subsidiary.
In July 2011, after a five-year wait and an ongoing dispute with local activists, European Goldfields was given approval by the environment ministry to dig the three mines, and meet stricter environmental rules, in a 1.3 billion euro project.
Despite the high price of gold on the market, however – as high as $1,680 an ounce on the New York Mercantile Exchange – the extent of the gold mining reserves in all three mines is largely unknown to the public.
According to a recent report by the United Nations department of economic and social affairs, “Greece possesses substantial mineral wealth, consisting of a variety of minerals and ores with a large industrial interest.” The report also notes that there are “significant mineral deposits which have not yet been exploited, or where exploitation has temporarily ceased”.
Calculating the reserves
Speaking at a conference in Halkidiki in February, Ioannis Paspaliaris, professor at the National Technical University of Athens school of mining and metallurgical engineering, mentioned specific numbers. Theoretically, Paspaliaris said, the cumulative value of the three deposits in Skouries, Olympiada and Stratoni is 15.6bn euros. The value after the enrichment process, which is necessary for the exploitation of gold, is around 5bn euros. Using metallurgical refining processes, the real value could go up to 11bn euros. Therefore, the annual revenue, Paspaliaris concluded, could reach as much as 450m euros.
A person described as close to the transaction was reported by British television network Sky News as saying that, although the deal has been presented as the Qataris assisting Greece at a time of economic need, “this isn’t an act of charity.” Additionally, The Independent newspaper said that the licence granted to European Goldfields in July “is set to turn the firm into Europe’s largest gold producer”.
The history of an unpaid bill
A multimillion-euro fine casts a shadow over the deal that European Goldfields struck on October 1, based on the history of ownership of the mines.
On 12 December 2003, the Kassandra mines were transferred from TVX Hellas to the Greek state for 11m euros, under the terms of an extrajudicial settlement contract between them. On the same day the government sold the mines, plus 70 extra assets, to Hellas Gold, again for 11m euros.
In February of this year, after an in-depth investigation, the European Commission concluded that the sale of the Kassandra mines in 2003 to Hellas Gold was carried out at a level below its real market value and, therefore, involved subsidies in breach of EU state aid rules. The subsidy was calculated at 14m euros.
The commission considered that the amount by which Hellas Gold benefited amounts to this 14 million euros, as the difference between the total fair market value of the Kassandra mines assets (25m euros) and the price paid in the sale. Moreover, in the transfer of the Kassandra mines assets, Hellas Gold was relieved of the obligation to pay the registration tax or any other tax while lawyer fees, notary fees and other fees were reduced in its favour.
As the company didn’t pay transaction taxes, the total amount to be recovered from the beneficiary to the state’s coffers is 15.3m euros, plus interest.
The money hasn’t been paid yet to the Greek state by European Goldfields, which puts into question the commission’s decision.
Source
Threat of Mercury Poisoning Rises With Gold Mining Boom
One rainy evening in the gold mining city of Segovia in northeastern Colombia, José Leonardo Atehortua was working late at the refinery — or entable — where miners bring their ores to be processed. Atehortua entered the cramped, concrete room and began his labor — roasting balls of amalgam composed of equal parts gold and mercury, an ancient process used to separate one of the world’s most valuable elements from one of the most toxic.
The next thing Atehortua remembers it was morning. He wanted to rise to his feet, to say something, but when he tried to speak saliva poured uncontrollably over his lips and down his chin. He had tunnel vision. He was unable to move his eyes. His limbs were stiff as a plank. He was lying on a cot in the entable surrounded by men saying “José está azogado” — Jose is mercuried.
The mercury poisoning of Atehortua reflects a growing threat in Colombia and other parts of the world as small-scale gold mining expands in response to rising gold prices. Gold and mercury are interdependent commodities. When the price of gold increases — as it has since 2002 — so does mercury pollution. The source of this pollution is a little known but widely practiced variety of small-scale gold mining, found throughout rural districts of the developing world.
To separate precious gold from common stones, small-scale miners cart their ore to town, where it is mixed with mercury in cylindrical mills filled
An estimated 15 to 20 million gold prospectors are now active in more than 60 countries.
with steel balls that grind the ore into a fine flour. Mercury and gold bind as one, until, sundered by fire, the more volatile mercury is vaporized from the elemental union. The result, in backwater towns like Segovia, can be the exposure of large numbers of people to high levels of mercury vapor, which, in extreme cases like Atehortua’s, can lead to life-threatening mercury poisoning.
The small-scale mining sector, much of it illegal and unregulated, is expanding worldwide faster than at anytime in history and, with it, the health threats posed by mercury. This global gold rush began in Brazil in the late 1970s, before sweeping every mineralized country in South America, Asia, and Africa, with an estimated 15 to 20 million prospectors now active in more than 60 countries.
Today’s small-scale mining industry is motivated less by adventure than survival. Poverty-driven miners rely on inexpensive, outdated, polluting technologies and chemicals — chief among them mercury — with heavy costs for human health and the environment.
Nowhere is this problem of mercury contamination more urgent than in Colombia. Gold mining is Colombia’s fastest growing industry, with 200,000 small-scale miners producing more than 50 percent of the country’s gold. This growth has turned Colombia into the world’s leading per-capita emitter of mercury, especially in states such as Antioquia, where Segovia is located.
Ground-level concentrations of mercury gas in gold-processing hamlets like Segovia are so high, experts fear the outbreak of an environmental health crisis worse than any caused by mercury since Minamata, Japan, where releases of mercury from a factory in the mid-20th century killed more than 1,700 people. Last year, scientists working for the United Nations Global Mercury Project recorded levels of mercury gas in Segovia’s center — near public schools and crowded markets — 1,000 times higher than World Health Organization limits.
As Atehortua was being transported to a local clinic, he recalled how nausea and headache had punished him with such intensity the previous night that he had stopped his work to lie down. Unable to be treated at the clinic, Atehortua was sent to the state capital, Medellín, where his blood could be filtered with activated carbon. There the doctors told him to dictate a will. “You are going to die,” they said.
(Atehortua later told his story to Kris Lane, a professor of Latin American history at the College of William & Mary, who interviewed Atehortua in 2008 and 2009 as part of his research for his book on Colombian mining, The Colour of Paradise. Lane relayed Atehortua’s story to me.)
In the ensuing weeks, Atehortua’s molars fell out; he was besieged by ringing in his ears, loss of hearing and appetite, impaired vision and
Segovia and four nearby cities release as much as 100 tons of mercury each year into the air and soil.
balance, and damaged kidneys — ailments common to acute mercury vapor intoxication. But somehow kidney dialysis worked, and, slowly, movement returned to his arms and legs. Four months later, Atehortua returned to the entable, famous among Segovia’s miners as the azogado who had miraculously recovered from paralysis.
“Unfortunately, people in Segovia say about José Atehortua, ‘Too bad for him, but great story,’ rather than ‘Watch out or this could happen to you,’” says Lane.
It is unclear what made the night of Atehortua’s poisoning different from other nights. One theory is that the unusually late shift occurred in the entable just as the air temperature was dropping and the day’s accumulated mercury vapor was precipitating from the ceiling. What is clear is the attack on Atehortua’s nervous system ought to have sounded alarms about an imminent threat to the urban residents of Antioquia’s mining regions.
“There is no other case in the world like this where an urban population of 150,000 people is exposed to such high levels of mercury vapor,” says Marcello Veiga, a professor of geochemistry and mining engineering at the University of British Columbia and former director of the United Nations Global Mercury Project. “The entables must move from the cities.”
Ordinarily, gold processing occurs in rural districts or industrial zones, away from densely-populated areas. But in Colombia, where security forces are preoccupied battling violence from all directions, the risks of working in the bush are too extreme to operate unprotected. (While I was there last fall, bandits robbed and murdered four brothers at their mine.) So gold refiners seek the security of city centers. In Segovia and four nearby cities, an estimated 350 entables release 50 to 100 metric tons of mercury each year into the air and soil of northeast Antioquia.
Yet cases where mercury-afflicted miners return to work in heavily contaminated areas remain common because of the Colombian Health Ministry’s practice of testing urine rather than blood; only blood tests can gauge how much mercury may have reached a person’s brain. “When the level of mercury in urine is normal,” Veiga says, “the patient can return to the same polluted work environment, without any evaluation of how much mercury has accumulated in the brain.”
Meanwhile, evidence is accumulating that more chronic varieties of the acute symptoms endured by Atehortua are affecting the most vulnerable segment of the population. In neurological tests administered to 196 children in Segovia, aged 7 to 13, 96 percent failed at least one measure of intoxication, whose indicators include attention, memory, language, and executive functions. These data are included in a UN health report, published in January, which describes the mercury situation in Antioquia as “dramatic.”
“It is no exaggeration,” the report concludes, “that in Segovia and Remedios” — the towns are adjacent — “the proportion of the population exposed to a high risk of mercury intoxication approaches 100 percent.”
After the birth of industrial-scale mining in the late 19th century, small-scale mining receded to the corners of crumbling, impoverished states, offering a refuge for the global poor — “drought-driven work” — during periods of privation and crop failure. Unlike industrial mining operations, small-scale mines never abandoned mercury. Cheap, abundant, and easy to use, mercury used in gold mining causes 30 percent of global mercury pollution, eclipsing all sources except mercury gas emitted from coal-fired power plants. But because of a widespread perception that small-scale mining was no longer a global force, serious efforts to document these toxic emissions only began in the last decade.
In Colombia, two modest technical adjustments — adding mercury after, rather than during, the grinding of ores, and capturing its vapor in ovens — could eliminate nearly all mercury emissions from entables. But most miners and processors lack the resources to change, while the country’s culture of conflict means there are no easy solutions.
Operating entables inside municipal limits has been illegal in Colombia since 1995, when a federal decree gave mayors a ten-year window to relocate refineries. Ten years turned into 15. The federal government pointed to the state agencies, the state to the mayors, the mayors to the miners, all to no effect. The mayors did not want to lose their votes. They also did not want to lose their lives.
At a September meeting of 55 public officials in Medellin, Miguel Enrigue Franco Menco, the mayor of Nechí — another gold mining town in Antioquia — issued a sober lament of his state’s mercury crisis. “Responsibility falls on the mayors,” he said. “But behind the gold market
‘The proportion of the population exposed to a high risk of mercury intoxication approaches 100 percent,’ said the UN.
there is violence threatening us, and public officials are turning a blind eye to this problem. We have fear.”
The mayor of Nechí was countered, swiftly and unsentimentally, by a vow from the region’s attorney general, Fanny Enriquez, to imprison any mayor who failed to move the entables. “Comply with the law!” she cried into a microphone, drowning protests from miners and mayors.
During my recent trip to Colombia, I had planned to tour entables in Segovia, but protests over the arrival of a Canadian mining company made that journey impossible. Trade union leaders were persuading miners that UN efforts to curb mercury emissions were part of a foreign conspiracy to expropriate their mines under environmental pretense.
I went instead to the town of Amalfi, visiting a small mine with modest quarters for sleeping six, a privy, and a kitchen. Under a tin roof were eight ball-mills, lined up next to each other near an opening in the rock face just wide enough for a cart the size of a small sled to be wheeled down into the darkness.
The mine starts as a sharply sloping tunnel descending 50 or 60 meters, before leveling off into the first large opening where dynamite had blasted a space big enough to stand upright. From here the miners had followed quartz veins, expanding underground into a disorienting series of tunnels that dip another 50 meters, leaving you fatigued from ducking beneath low clearings and squeezing between narrow walls.
Carted up from the mine below, the ores are run through a sluice to strain and separate large from small rocks, then combined with mercury in the ball-mills where they are ground for five or six hours. After that, the floured concentrate is panned in a wide-lipped cedar bowl, until what’s left is the gold and mercury amalgam, ready to be burned.
“Of course we know miners who are mercuried,” said Cesar Zapata, the mine’s operator. “We want to change. The problem is we don’t know how, and we don’t have means. And we don’t have means because we are not legal.”
Many miners are aware of the danger posed by mercury. One common practice to keep from inhaling mercury vapor is for miners to hold a large leaf over the roasting amalgam. “The problem,” said Oseas García Rivera, who directs a mercury pollution project administered jointly by the government and UN, “is they take that leaf and go like this” — he pretended
Development experts view environmental needs as inseparable from questions of poverty and property.
to throw something into the forest — “so the mercury ends up in the environment anyway.”
Garcia is among an increasingly vocal wing of development practitioners who view environmental needs as inseparable from questions of poverty and property. Only when miners have access to credit and capital, the thinking goes, can they invest sustainably in pollution controls. And without formal mining claims, small-scale gold miners in Colombia and elsewhere have no collateral against which they can borrow.
But mobilizing governments to recognize mineral rights in the small-scale mining economy is a struggle, especially when foreign companies wield influence through investment in large-scale resource extraction.
Among small-scale miners, the perception is they are engaged in a game that is rigged against them. “The companies arrive and the laws are immediately changed to help them, while we have to wait ten years to get titles,” says Roberto Lema Castro, president of a national miners association called Fenamicol.
Such problems present a vexing paradox: Acute environmental health crises such as urban mercury emissions demand immediate intervention, yet sustainable solutions lie in healing deeper social and political afflictions.
“We have too many problems to expect one big solution,” García Rivera says. “But what we can hope for is to get a group of entables, five or ten, to try a different way, and use mercury as an excuse, a tool, to create a progressive process.”Source
Profiting from Europe's New Gold Rush
Written by Jeff Clark
Date: 07-20-2012
Subject: Casey Research Articles
Europe owns a sizable chunk of the world’s natural resources.
Over the past few decades, however, EU countries have mostly imported their resources.
Outlandish? Maybe.
But it was simply easier, cheaper, and most importantly it avoided most environmental conflicts.
Getting through government regulation and facing off eco-friendly groups is a time-consuming and outrageously expensive business… a fool’s errand.
When you can simply import and let other countries deal with all the hassle, it made a lot of sense. But things change.
When no one’s got a job, it truly focuses the political agenda.
Europe’s job market is a mess. Demonstrators are crying out for action, for opportunity, for jobs.
And mines employ a lot of people.
The trend is reversing because of Europe’s sluggish economy and the real benefits of the increase in local jobs and the leap in tax revenue that mining projects bring.
Of course, local economies benefit. Hotels are full of transient engineers and specialists, grocery stores feed the workers, and bars serve liquor to quench their dusty throats.
Then, of course, the government got involved…
Brussels, 2011.
Seeing the benefits of the jobs, income-tax revenues, and all-around political advantages, a “Raw Materials Strategy” was initiated in 2008, then revised and updated in 2010, and again in 2011.
The aim was to encourage sustainable supplies of raw materials from within the EU.
It calls for policies in support of domestic mining.
So far, so good…
In September 2011, the European Parliament adopted the “EU Raw Materials Strategy,” a generally pro-mining document, though it’s sometimes criticized by the industry for being “too bureaucratic.”
“It’s positive, of course, that the political climate in Europe is at least in theory becoming more supportive of mining”
So on the one hand, the government says, “Sure, go ahead,” and spends years (and no doubt millions of euros) coming up with a plan, while the other hand slaps down a bunch of rules that stifles initiative, adds massively to production costs, and once more makes mining companies think twice before they put down the millions it takes to get started.
Driller killers, indeed.
Yet the gold mining sector in Europe represents 16,000 direct and indirect jobs as of 2009, and that is surely growing.
So for the gold, the tax, the jobs, and for more than a few political careers, mining is right up at the top of the political agenda.
And despite the regulation stranglehold governments put on mining companies, they are still reopening abandoned mines and are exploring entirely new areas.
For investors, that’s very positive, exciting news.
Europe’s New Gold Rush
In Casey Research’s BIG GOLD, we’ve been talking a lot lately about the three main zones of metallogenic significance for gold in Europe: the Iberian Pyrite Belt; the Carpathian Arc; and the Baltic Shield.
The first crosses from Portugal through southern Spain.
The second stretches from the Czech Republic through Hungary, Slovakia, Bulgaria, Ukraine, Romania, Serbia, and into Turkey.
Number three, the Baltic Shield, traverses from western Russia through Finland, Sweden, and Norway.
Europe’s gold mining contribution is approximately 1.2% of global mine production (though demand from the EU is roughly 15% of worldwide totals).
Sweden, Finland, Spain, and Bulgaria are currently the largest gold producers in Europe. They mine about 640,000 million ounces of gold annually.
Other countries with operating gold mines are Greenland, France, Greece, Romania, Portugal, Slovakia, and the UK.
Among the gold companies operating in the region are Eldorado Gold (EGO) in Greece and Romania; Agnico-Eagle (AEM) in Finland; and Gabriel Resources (T.GBU) in Romania, as well as other majors and juniors across the continent.
Europe’s New Frontiers
2011 was a banner year for European mining.
Exploration expenditures were estimated to reach approximately €400 million (US$490 million), an all-time high. The largest share of those exploration dollars was concentrated in Sweden, Finland, Norway, and Greenland.
These countries, together with Poland, accounted for €288 million or two-thirds of total exploration expenditures last year.
This is even more impressive when put into historical perspective.
As you can see in the chart below, Nordic exploration spending has grown by almost four times in just ten years.
[Source: Euromines.org]
Both local and international companies are active in this region.
Further, junior companies that we look at in detail in BIG GOLD are expanding rapidly; Euromines reports that in Sweden, for example, juniors account for some 50% of total exploration dollars being spent.
Why has the attractiveness of the Nordic countries increased so dramatically?
–The area is largely underexplored, and its geological similarity to Canada, Australia, and West Africa makes the Baltic Shield a highly prospective place for new discoveries.
Miners know what to expect and they already have the technology in place, so profitability for them and their investors comes that much sooner.
These countries have well-developed infrastructure (roads and railways) and telecommunication.
–They have access to highly educated, trained, and experienced staff to support projects during all phases of mining is widely available.
–The attitude of both the public and politicians toward exploration and mining is generally positive, especially in the northern parts of the region, though anti-mine protests still take place. Since the area is not densely populated, the NIMBY (“not in my back yard”) factor is largely absent.
–Keeping the green lobby happy means keeping the mines open, operating, and creating a robust, investment-worthy business.
Europeans tend to be very concerned about ecology, so environmental issues are closely watched and strictly regulated.
Though most responsible miners make concerted efforts to reduce their impact on the environment, miners in Europe focus on this to a high degree.
The divide between miners and environmentalists has shrunk over the past few decades due to advances in technology.
But a bigger reason for the cooperation is the eroding economic situation. To a certain degree, politicians have been forced to find a more reasonable balance between conservation and the economic benefits mining can bring.
Spain, for example, has its economic back to the wall, starting with a record unemployment rate of more than 24%.
Astur Gold (V.AST) is working on getting the Spanish Salave gold deposit into production (which a previous company failed to do in 2005). The jobs it will bring no doubt add to the appeal; the company has received over 6,300 job applications.
Management has received two of three environmental permits and hopes to finalize the third by year end. If the project is fully permitted, the economic impact on the area will be both immediate and dramatic.
Will the Driller Killer Return?
The biggest threats to mining in Europe are resource nationalism, significant skills shortages, and infrastructure access in certain areas (see first news item below).
However, even on these issues, Europe is in a better position than many other areas.
The continent has a strong tradition of transparent and stable laws, along with respect for private property, leaving few in support of outright nationalization.
Western European countries also usually have well-developed infrastructure and an educated and skilled labor force.
On the other hand, bureaucratic procedures, overregulation, and a dense population outside of the northern countries have worked to keep massive mine development across Europe from accelerating as it has elsewhere.
Still, the carrot dangled by the mining industry looks awfully juicy…
–If Romania approves Gabriel Resources’ Rosia Montana gold mine, for example, the project is estimated to bring some US$30 billion of economic benefits to the country.
The company hopes to mine 9.6 million ounces of gold and 51.5 million ounces of silver over 16 years. Eldorado’s Olympias and Skouries mines in the Halkidiki region will produce about 350,000 ounces of gold annually beginning in 2015.
Management is spending €1.3 billion to develop the projects, which will create 1,800 jobs in a country where unemployment is close to 20%.
Overall, the atmosphere for gold mining in Europe appears to be improving. Its importance is recognized in Brussels; even though only a few clumsy steps have been taken, the general attitude is making a positive shift.
With the benefits mining can bring – more jobs and greater revenue – we think there will be fewer objections overall, especially in the more desperate countries. It won’t solve all their problems, but there’s no doubt it would relieve some of the fiscal pressure.
From an investment point of view, it’s a region to watch. We fully expect to find increasing opportunities here.Source
Eldorado Gold Receives Approval for Preliminary Environmental Impact Study at Perama Hill Project
VANCOUVER – BC – Paul N. Wright, President and Chief Executive Officer of Eldorado Gold Corporation (“Eldorado”, the “Company” or “We”), is pleased to announce that the Ministry of Environment, Energy and Climate Change of the Hellenic Republic of Greece (“Ministry”) has approved the Preliminary Environmental Impact Assessment (“PEIA”) Study for the Perama Hill Gold Deposit (“Perama Hill” or “Project”) located in Thrace, Northern Greece. The Project, with presently defined proven and probable reserves of 975,000 ounces of gold, will be developed as an open pit mine producing approximately 110,000 ounces annually at cash costs projected to be less than US$300 per ounce. Total invested capital will be approximately US$190 million. The Perama Hill Project is expected to provide employment for about 370 persons during construction and direct employment for 200 persons during operation, in addition to supporting significant levels of indirect employment in the area, characteristic of mining operations.
“We are pleased that the Greek Government endorses the Perama Hill project, which will provide positive signals for exploration and further development of the significant mineral resources in Northern Greece,” said Paul Wright, President and CEO of Eldorado Gold. “Eldorado has prepared the final Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) Study, which will be submitted to the Ministry this quarter.”
Eldorado is a gold producing, exploration and development company actively growing businesses in Turkey, China, Brazil and Greece. With our international expertise in mining, finance and project development, together with highly skilled and dedicated staff, we believe that our company is well positioned to grow in value as we create and pursue new opportunities.
ON BEHALF OF
ELDORADO GOLD CORPORATION
“Paul N. Wright”
Paul N. Wright
President and Chief Executive Officer
JORC Competent Person Statement
The information in this news release that relates to Perama reserves is based on information compiled by Richard Miller, P.Eng, who is a Member of the Association of Professional Engineers and Geoscientists of BC. Richard Miller is a full time employee of Eldorado Gold Corporation.
Richard Miller has sufficient experience which is relevant to the style of mineralization and type of deposit under consideration and to the activity which is undertaking to qualify as a Competent Person as defined in the 2004 Edition of the ‘Australasian Code for Reporting of Exploration Results, Mineral Resources and Ore Reserves.
Richard Miller is the Qualified Person as defined in the Canadian National Instrument 43-101 (Standards of Disclosure for Mineral Projects) and consents to the inclusion in the report of the matters based on the information in the form and context in which it appears.
Certain of the statements made herein may contain forward-looking statements or information within the meaning of the United States Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995 and applicable Canadian securities laws. Often, but not always, forward-looking statements and forward-looking information can be identified by the use of words such as “plans”, “expects”, “is expected”, “budget”, “scheduled”, “estimates”, “forecasts”, “intends”, “anticipates”, or “believes” or the negatives thereof or variations of such words and phrases or statements that certain actions, events or results “may”, “could”, “would”, “might” or “will” be taken, occur or be achieved. Forward-looking statements or information herein include, but are not limited, to statements or information with respect to the Perama Hill project.
Forward-looking statements and forward-looking information by their nature are based on assumptions and involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors which may cause the actual results, performance or achievements of the Company to be materially different from any future results, performance or achievements expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements or information. We have made certain assumptions about the forward-looking statements and information, including assumptions about the legal restrictions regarding the payment of dividends by the Company; assumptions about the price of gold; anticipated costs and expenditures; estimated production, mineral reserves and metallurgical recoveries; the impact of the integration of acquired businesses on our operation, financial position, reserves and resources and gold production; and the ability to achieve our goals. Although our management believes that the assumptions made and the expectations represented by such statements or information are reasonable, there can be no assurance that the forward-looking statements or information will prove to be accurate. Furthermore, should one or more of the risks, uncertainties or other factors materialize, or should underlying assumptions prove incorrect, actual results may vary materially from those described in forward-looking statements or information. These risks, uncertainties and other factors include, among others, the following: gold price volatility; risks of not meeting production and cost targets; discrepancies between actual and estimated production, mineral reserves and resources and metallurgical recoveries; mining operational and development risk; litigation risks; regulatory restrictions, including environmental regulatory restrictions and liability; risks of sovereign investment and operating in foreign countries; currency fluctuations; speculative nature of gold exploration; global economic climate; dilution; share price volatility; the risk that the integration of acquired businesses taking longer than expected, the anticipated benefits of the integration may be less than estimated and the costs of acquisition higher than anticipated; ability to complete acquisitions; competition; loss of key employees; additional funding requirements; and defective title to mineral claims or property, as well as those factors discussed in the sections entitled “Forward-Looking Statements” and “Risk Factors” in the Company’s Annual Information Form & Form 40-F dated March 31, 2011, and in the Company’s Management Information Circular dated January 23, 2012, including the risk factors incorporated by reference in such circular.
There can be no assurance that forward-looking statements or information will prove to be accurate, as actual results and future events could differ materially from those anticipated in such statements. Accordingly, you should not place undue reliance on the forward-looking statements or information contained herein. Except as required by law, we do not expect to update forward-looking statements and information continually as conditions change and you are referred to the full discussion of the Company’s business contained in the Company’s reports filed with the securities regulatory authorities in Canada and the U.S.
Eldorado Gold Corporation’s Common Shares are listed on the Toronto Stock Exchange (TSX: ELD); New York Stock Exchange (NYSE: EGO). Eldorado CDIs trade on the Australian Securities Exchange (ASX: EAU)
Contact:
Eldorado Gold Corporation
Nancy E. Woo, VP, Investor Relations
Phone: 604.601.6650 or 1.888.353.8166
Fax: 604.687.4026
Email: nancyw@eldoradogold.com
1188, 550 Burrard Street
Vancouver, BC V6C 2B5
Website: http://www.eldoradogold.com
Request for information packages: reception@eldoradogold.com
View News Release in PDF Format:
File: http://www.eldoradogold.com/i/pdf/12-07.pdf
A gold Mining Company with Unknown Phone number and Location
European Goldfields holds a 65% interest in Hellas Gold S.A. Hellas Gold owns assets in Northern Greece which include 70 year mining concessions over a total area of 317 km2 and three polymetallic near-production deposits, known as Olympias, Stratoni and Skouries, with total proven and probable reserves of 17.04Moz of gold equivalent (65% attributable: 11.08Moz).
The Stratoni orebody is a polymetallic massive replacement-type deposit with proven and probable reserves totalling 1.64Mt of ore grading 7.6% lead, 10.2% zinc and 179g/t silver.The Stratoni facility consists of two mining operations, Madem Lakkos and Mavres Petres mines as well as the nearby Stratoni milling complex. In March 2005, Hellas Gold was awarded by the Greek state all environmental permits for mining operations at the Stratoni deposit. Following normal procedure, a technical committee formed by the Greek government is completing a final overview of Hellas Gold’s mining plan for the Stratoni deposit. Final approval to commence mining operations is expected shortly.
Hellas Gold expects to start mining operations during the second quarter of 2005 by means of the existing adit while excavating a new access tunnel to the Stratoni reserves.
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Note
The Stratoni Operations comprise the Mavres Petres and Madem Lakkos mines as well as the Stratoni mill.
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General Information
Stratoni Operations: Base Metals Mine (710 000 t grading 11.4% Zn, 9.4% Pb, 235 g/t Ag)
Status: Underway
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Related Organisations
has shareholder: Hellas Gold SA
has shareholder: TVX Gold Inc.
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Contact Information
Phone: Not Known
Fax: Not Known
E-mail: Not Known
Location: Greece
Latitude/Longitude: Not Known
"High Grade Gold In Greece" : The Report May 2012
Of course Mining would cost a lot less in drachmas than in euros.. well. Africa is expanding to the North,doesn’t it.
Special Energy Issue on Kazakhstan- The Report May 2012
SPECIAL ENERGY ISSUE covering May 2012
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In his words, US companies are involved in all major oil and gas projects in the country.
Kazakh KazMunaiGas and Russian Lukoil sign memorandum of understanding
KazMunaiGas Chiarman Lyazzat Kiinov and President of Lukoil Vagit Alekperov have signed amemorandum of understanding and a general agreement on cooperation in the field of personnel management to study the aromatic hydrocarbon production technology in Astana.“A memorandum of understanding between KazMunaiGas and Lukoil lays the foundation forcooperation between the companies in studying geological and geophysical data of freeunlicensed onshore and offshore sites in Kazakhstan,” KazMunaiGas said.The relevant program has been implemented since November 2011. Atyrau Oil Refinery expertshave been trained at the Lukoil-Permnefteorgsintez and Lukoil-Volgograd plants.Lukoil employees plan to study KazMunaiGas experience in professional standards development.About 46 employees of the Atyrau Oil Refinery are planned to be trained this year
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Insomniacs II 