150 protestors held banners outside the Energy Ministry in Athens to demonstrate against the 50 dismissals of employees who lost their jobs from the Skouries Mine in Chalkidiki, Northern Greece, on February 27. The employees of Hellas Gold SA were angered by the government’s decision to recall the permit for a processing plant at Skouries. The Skouries goldmine is the largest of the Cassandra Mines of northern Chalkidiki and one of the largest gold deposits in Greece.

The same workers had met with Productive Reconstruction, Environment and Energy Minister Panagiotis Lafazanis on Friday during a similar protest action. The workers say that the minister had pledged that the workers would go back to their jobs on Wednesday as he saw nothing illegal in the mines’ licensing.