Guyana: justice urges the state to "extend" the controversial concessions of Montagne d'Or

Guyana's administrative court on Thursday ordered the state to "extend" the mining concessions of the Montagne d'Or Company, overturning the implicit refusal of the Minister of the Economy, Bruno Le Maire.

The court "ordered the state to extend", "within six months" the concessions, keystones of the controversial mining project known as the Gold Mountain.

He thus "canceled" the implicit refusal of Bruno Le Maire to extend the mining concessions of the Compagnie Montagne d'Or in Guyana.

Relying on the overrun of the regulatory two-year investigation period, the Minister of the Economy implicitly rejected, on January 21, 2019, the 25-year renewal of the mining concessions of the Montagne d'Or company (CMO), then legally putting a stop to the largest primary gold mining project ever proposed in France, led by the Russian-Canadian consortium Nordgold-Columbus Gold.

Concessions in two reserves with high biodiversity value

The administrative court considered that CMO "presents sufficient elements justifying its technical and financial capacities to exploit the concessions".

Justice also underlined the "lack of serious challenge" of Bruno Le Maire, to justify his implicit rejection.

During the hearing on December 3, the public rapporteur pointed out, in this dispute, the "weakness" and the lack of "relevance" of the arguments of the State to justify its refusal.

It is a "difficult point of the file" which is "not to the advantage of the administration" added the public rapporteur.

The concessions (with a surface area of ​​40 km2) are located in the municipalities of Saint-Laurent du Maroni and Apatou, in the middle of the forest, between two reserves with high biodiversity value.

In the coming years, the company plans to mine and process an 85-tonne gold deposit using closed-circuit cyanidation.