Krumovgrad to protest against gold mining

The residents of Krumovgrad will protest today against gold mining in the area of Ada Tepe, announced Life for Krumovgrad Association. The extraction of gold will be carried out by the Canadian company Balkan Mineral and Mining, a subsidiary of Dundee Precious Metals, which received a permission for a 30-year concession in February. The organisers of the protest insist on a referendum for or against the gold extraction. They reminded that the concession was granted without an environmental impact assessment and evaluation for compatibility with the Natura 2000 ecological network. Gold mining will be carried out on the neighboring hills of Ada Tepe as well.

Although Dundee gave up the cyanide technology for extraction, people do not approve of the new method either because it involves the use of explosives, requiring 7,000 kg of blasting compound to be used each time. The State will not benefit from the concession either because the gold deposit there has been evaluated at BGN 7-10 bn, while the concession fee Bulgaria will receive will be between 1.44% and 4% a year, depending on the prices at the London Gold Exchange, experts claim.

The Regional Environmental Inspectorate in the town of Haskovo started an inspection of the Kardzhali-based lead and zinc works after a signal that lead production was resumed only days after it had been stopped. The results from the inspection will be announced today. The owner of the enterprise Valentin Zahariev flatly denied to Klassa the allegations that lead production had been resumed. "The plant is trying to restore its self-monitoring system in order to prove that there is another pollutant in the region. In many other towns such as Plovdiv, Sliven, and Dimitrovgrad, the same technologies is used and, in my opinion, a double standard is being applied," he said.

Прочети цялата новина

Свързани новини: