A few weeks ago, in the port of Thessaloniki, when a ship’s captain noticed that a container which was about to be loaded on to his ship was leaking, he refused to load any containers that had the same provenance. The container belonged to Hellas Gold and in it was a liquid mixture of auriferous pyrite which, as a company representative would later admit to the press, “can be considered dangerous”.
Hellas Gold, a subsidiary of Canadian Eldorado Gold, is active in Northern Greece. It has been the epicenter of controversy as of 2012, when it began preparation works for an open pit gold mine in the forest of Skouries, in the region of Chalkidiki, northern Greece. Mining operations have sparked protests among environmentally concerned citizens across Greece and the majority of the area’s residents. Some see the mine as a source of work. Tensions have risen to the extreme both among residents and between those residents opposed to the mine and the company. This has led to numerous police interventions and arrests that have resulted in outstanding court cases.
At the beginning of September there was another spillage of possibly hazardous materials, this time when a Hellas Gold truck was overturned during a traffic accident. There are also serious questions about the storage conditions of the possibly hazardous waste in the port and the industrial area of Thessaloniki, before they are shipped out of the country. .
The matter was raised in the European Parliament by independent MP Kriton Arsenis who said that there was a breach of European law in regard to the transport and storage of possibly hazardous materials..
In a recent development, MPs of opposition party SYRIZA, also brought attention to the matter. During a press conference they alleged that ‘Hellas Gold’ is systematically engaging in tax evasion tactics, as waste from their mines being shipped out of Greece to China contain gold which they fail to declare.