Canadian company Dundee Precious Metals will re-direct $ 175 million of investment from Bulgaria to other projects in the Balkans and Western Europe.

Dundee Precious Metals executive vice president Laurence Marsland announced the company decision on July 13, Dnevnik newspaper reported.

The company had planned to invest in the creation of a new installation of metal extraction in the town of Chelopech. The investment plan was cancelled because of the five-month delay of the Environment and Water Affairs Ministry to approve the company's report on the ways industrial activity would affect the environment.

The ministry also failed to state its position on the second investment project of the company in Kroumovgrad. The Supreme Administrative Court rejected the company's complaint saying it was unacceptable. Dundee Precious Metals would appeal the court decision in October.