Gold mines to reopen under new firm?
Following a number of high-priority issues that in recent weeks have dominated headlines, such as the subject of OTE telecom’s sale to Deutsche Telekom, an increasingly interesting issue will be added to the Development Ministry’s agenda in the coming weeks regarding recent developments at Thracian gold mines. The Thrace gold mines, or Perama Hill, as the site is called, were owned by the Frontier Pacific Mining Corporation, a mineral exploration and development company based in Vancouver, Canada. However, Frontier Pacific, which focused on gold and uranium mining in Europe and South America, was recently acquired by another Canadian company, Eldorado Gold Corporation. Even though there is nothing wrong with or peculiar about the deal, the fact that Eldorado Gold aggressively targeted and bought out Frontier Pacific could mean that the company has been considering, and might attempt, to reorganize the gold project in Northeastern Greece. Eldorado is a gold production, exploration and development company actively expanding business in Brazil, Turkey, China and other regions, with Greece the latest addition. The aggressive takeover was concluded through the Vancouver stock exchange, according to reports. But reoperation of the Perama Hill gold project is not as simple as it may seem. Strong opposition by the local community would be the main barrier to such efforts. Also, Development Minister Christos Folias would very likely be faced with a tough, if not impossible, task when the new operator decides to push ahead with plans to reorganize the Thrace gold mines.
