Mining News
Eldorado Gold obtains one of key approvals for Skouries
(Kitco News) - Eldorado Gold announced today that the Greek Ministry of Energy and Environment has approved a modification to the Kassandra Mines Environmental Impact Assessment to allow for the use of dry stack tailings disposal at the Skouries project.
Dry stack technology involves filtering tailings to remove water prior to stacking and compacting the dry material in a designated tailings area.
The company said that one of the benefits of using dry stack tailings disposal is that dry stacked material is denser than conventional slurry tailings and can be stacked and compacted, thus occupying less space and reducing the environmental footprint of the facility by 50%.
Another advantage of the technology is that water removed from the tailings will be recycled, reducing the need to extract water from local sources. Dry stack allows for continuous reclamation, making final reclamation at the end of mine life faster and easier, Eldorado explained.
Eldorado noted that this approval is one of the key items required to restart construction at Skouries.
The Skouries project is one component of the Kassandra Mines, which includes the nearby Olympias mine and the Stratoni/Mavres Petres mine. Skouries is a high-grade gold-copper porphyry project that is partially constructed and currently on care and maintenance. Skouries is expected to operate for approximately 23 years based on current reserves, initially as an open pit and underground mine, followed by underground mining only.
Eldorado is a gold and base metals producer with mining, development and exploration operations in Turkey, Canada, Greece, Romania, and Brazil.
