The government rejected Thursday, May 23, the controversial Gold Mountain gold mining industrial project, a point of tension in Guyana between supporters of economic development of the territory and environmental associations that remain skeptical.
At the end of the first "Council of ecological defense" and three days of the European elections, Prime Minister Philippe and his Minister of the Environment, François de Rugy, confirmed the abandonment of the project, deeming it "incompatible with the requirements of environmental protection ".
Emmanuel Macron had already said, but Thursday the government was more categorical: "The project will not happen." He "is not supported by the government," assured the minister to journalists who asked him to clarify his position. Former minister Nicolas Hulot had expressed his reluctance on this project, as did the Minister of Overseas Annick Girardin.
The Montagne d'Or Company announced to take "act", without giving up the battle. It reaffirmed "its willingness to conduct an open and constructive dialogue with all stakeholders in order to make this project in Guyana compatible with the requirements of environmental protection".
"Smoking continues"
Montagne d'Or, supported by a Russian-Canadian consortium, Nordgold-Columbus Gold, is the largest gold mining project ever proposed in France. Covering an area of 8 km2, it provides for a 100-hectare pit for a 12-year operation of 6.7 tonnes of gold per year, south of Saint-Laurent-du-Maroni, in the equatorial forest, via a process for recovering gold by cyanidation in a closed circuit.
Government statements, however, provoked skepticism from opponents of the project: "These repeated announcements seem to indicate that the project will not be done but WWF France regrets that in the face of so much unanimity and common sense, the government has still not formally and definitively his abandonment ", said in a tweet the environmental association.
For Gold question, which brings together the environmental associations opposed to the project, "smoking continues". The group, which calls for "the permanent abandonment of all mining industrial projects in progress," fears that "these statements leave the possibility to the mining company, seeing the door closed, to go out the window by modifying his project".
With AFP