Eldorado Gold Corporation ("Eldorado" or the "Company") confirms that the Arbitration Panel (the "Panel") in Greece has issued its ruling with respect to the arbitration initiated by the Greek State (the "Greek State"), (see the Company's press release dated September 14, 2017).
The Panel's ruling rejects the Greek State's motion that the technical study for the Madem Lakkos metallurgy plant for treating Olympias and Skouries concentrates, as submitted by the Company's Greek subsidiary Hellas Gold S.A. ("Hellas Gold") in December 2014, was in breach of the provisions of the Transfer Contract.
The Transfer Contract is the document dated December 12, 2003 whereby Hellas Gold originally acquired the Kassandra assets, comprised of Olympias, Skouries and Stratoni, in the Halkidiki region of Greece, and was ratified by Greek National Law No 3220/2004.
The Company and Hellas Gold intend to continue to evaluate the decision and consider next steps with respect to its Kassandra investments.
George Burns, Eldorado Gold's President and CEO stated,
"We respect and acknowledge the Panel's ruling. We have always acted in good faith and in a manner we understood to be in accordance with our obligations under the Transfer Contract, including our commitment to developing the Kassandra assets in accordance with the Greek State's approval of the Investment Plan in 2006, and the Environmental Impact Study in 2011. We have repeatedly communicated this commitment, including during the course of the arbitration.
We believe this decision provides a foundation to allow us to advance dialogue with the Greek government in order to define a mutually-agreeable and clear path forward for our Kassandra investments. We look to the Greek State to fulfil its obligations under the Transfer Contract including issuing the outstanding permits for the Skouries project. The full, efficient and responsible development of the Kassandra assets will benefit the Greek State and its citizens, the local communities, our shareholders and our teams of Greek employees.
Eldorado has continued to demonstrate its commitment to improving the environmental impact of our investments by recently submitting the updated Technical Study for the Skouries Project which reduces our project footprint by forty percent."
