The Regional Environmental Reconstruction Programme for South Eastern Europe REReP Record

Cyanide project scratched in Bulgaria Canada’s Dundee Precious Metals (DPM) cancelled its gold mining project in Chelopech, Bulgaria, the company’s Executive Vice President and Chief Operating Officer Laurence Marsland announced to media in June. The USD 175 million project faced fierce opposition from environmentalists, who vented their outrage in February when the High Experts Council of Bulgaria’s Ministry of Environment and Waters (MOEW) greenlighted the project’s environmental impact assessment. Local residents in the Cyanide-Free Bulgaria Coalition were then refused access to the ministry, and an activist was briefly detained by the police. Despite the council’s decision, Environment Minister Dzhevdzhet Chakarov postponed his final approval of the project by more than five months. Dundee announced its withdrawal from the project after Bulgaria’s Supreme Administrative Court rejected the company’s petition against the delay of decision. The minister’s hold-up of the project is a major victory of civil society and nature protection in the wake of EU accession, said Fidanka Bacheva of Cyanide- Free Bulgaria.

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