CANADIAN Dundee Precious Metals Inc. said on August 15 it would invest $240 million in the construction, exploitation, closure and recultivation of its Ada Tepe gold mine in Krumovgrad in south-east Bulgaria.
“The overall project cost is estimated at $240 million,” Laurence Marsland, CEO of Dundee’s Bulgarian subsidiary, Balkan Mineral and Mining, said at a news conference.
He said the construction cost of the project would be $75 million for the six-year operating life of the mine and operating expenses would be expected at $80 million. The company would also pay $5.2 million in concession fees to the Bulgarian state, $26 million in taxes and $8 million to close the mine and recultivate the land around it. The company had already spent $37 million in geological research.
Marsland said Dundee Precious would need at least three and a half years to start recovering its investment. The company hoped to start construction work at the beginning of next year and proceed with mining at the beginning of 2007.
Dundee executives said that all precautions had been taken against environmental pollution and harm to human health in Krumovgrad and neighbouring settlements as a result of gold extraction from the Ada Tepe mine.
The Bulgarian Society for the Protection of Birds (BSPB) said on August 15 that the Ministry of Environment and Water should reject the investment proposal of Balkan Mineral and Mining to begin extracting gold.
The BSPB presented its official opinion on the environmental impact assessment report.
According to the BSPB, the report showed that the project posed a hazard not only to human life and the environment but to the region’s very existence. The use of cyanides would destroy the region’s tobacco crops and livestock industry, as well as ruin its emerging tourist industry.  
Dundee rejected all allegations.