Dundee Precious Metals Inc was nevertheless granted a permission for Ada Tepe

The Supreme Environmental Expert Council with the Ministry of Environment and Waters (MEW) authorized Balkan Mineral & Mining JSC (BMM JSC), a subsidiary of the Canadian Dundee Precious Metals Inc company in Bulgaria, to extract gold in the Ada Tepe area, near the town of Krumovgrad. The company was facilitated to initiate a preliminary implementation of the ruling. This means that even if the Environmental Impact Assessment is appealed, this will not impede the Dundee Precious Metals to start preparing the project implementation and to apply for permits.

"We were absolutely surprised by the intention of the company to request a preliminary implementation of the ruling and by the support on the part of the Ministry of Economy, Energy and Tourism," said Mayor of Krumovgrad Sebihan Mehmed. “We will definitely appeal," stated Mehmed.

"Why should a land that is intact be explored? People do not want gold mining in Krumovgrad," said Maria Damyanova from the Life for Krumovgrad Association. Residents from the town initiate a petition against the gold mining in Krumovgrad and will send it to the European Commission and the European Parliament.

“There is always some impact on the environment, but everything will be in line with the Bulgarian standards and the European legislation,” said Alex Nestor, Corporate Relations Director for Bulgaria at Dundee Precious Metals. The decision itself, however, stipulated that some 99 decares will be directly affected, if not destroyed.  The area in which the BMM JSC will extract gold, is part of the largest zone in the Natura 2000 ecological network.

The gold mine in the area of Ada Tepe in the Khan Krum deposit is with an expected lifetime of about 9 years, given a yield of 850,000 tons / year.

The Green Balkans Federation of nature conservation NGOs alarmed about this issue as well. “In 10 years, the State will gain some BGN 500 mln and the company - BGN 10 bn just from the gold and copper extracted, without taking into account the other strategic metals, which will be exported in the form of Dore black gold," said for Klassa Konstantin Dichev. He stated that the organization had referred to the Prosecutor’s Office, the Parliament, the Government and the EC about the plundering of the mine in Chelopech, and the Bulgarian State respectively. According to him, Bulgaria will incur losses amounting to over $ 4 billion.

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