A 2012 ministerial decision granting Hellenic Gold, the company exploiting the Skouries gold mine concession in northern Greece, 327.3 hectares of forestland in two separate locations has been ratified by the Council of State, Greece’s highest administrative court.

A high court ruling unveiled on Wednesday also gave the “green light” for the continuation of logging on the specific tracts of land, works directly related to mining operations at the main site.

In a nutshell, the CoS determined that specific mining operations cannot be carried out without a partial tree clearing of the land tracts, and given that alternative solutions had been examined, as specified by law in such cases.

The court decision also referred to the economic impact of the project, one of the biggest foreign direct investments in Greece, and the fact that the intervention in the region affects 0.44 percent of the entire forestland surface in the eastern Halkidiki prefecture region.
The Skouries project, run by the Greek subsidiary of Canadian multinational El Dorado Gold, has generated heightened controversy, often pitting local residents against each other, and on a broader scale, environmentalists against government officials and business groups.