At the financial close of the deal financingin the amount of 680 million euros, for work Rust Halkidiki, part of Kassandra Mines, a Canadian Eldorado Gold group operating in Greece through its subsidiary, “Greek gold”.

As the Vancouver, Canada-based group announced yesterday, the agreement, which was closed after meeting the necessary conditions, is structured to provide 80% of the funding needed to complete the project, while the remaining 20% ​​will be financed by the company itself.

The financing is a long-term syndicated loan provided National Bank Greece and Piraeus Bankincluding loans from Recovery Fund and Resilience in the amount of 100 million euros. The Skourion mine, which will be a combination of underground and surface development, has remained under maintenance since November 2017, while Eldorado Gold spent €31.2 million to carry out preliminary work at it from January 2022 until the end of March 2023. . This amount will be used as a loan to the equity that the company has committed to. For this, a guarantee letter for 190 million euros was issued, the amount of which will gradually decrease as Eldorado Gold invests in the project.

Three years of construction work is expected to resume in the summer at Skouries, where a porphyry deposit rich in gold (0.74 g/t gold) and copper (0.49% copper) has been discovered.

It is estimated that the Skouries mine will create around 1,400 permanent jobs over 25 years, with construction employing 800 people. In total, the full development of the Kassandra mines in Skouries, Olympiada Halkidiki and Stratoni (under geological exploration) will create 5,000 direct and indirect jobs, while it is estimated that this will bring about 2 billion euros in state revenue, with an estimated the value of purchases from Greek suppliers should be placed at 4 billion euros.

As previously stated by Eldorado Gold Vice President Greece and Hellenic Gold President Christos Balaskas, the reopening of Skouries will allow Greece to become the third largest gold mining country in Europe.