Protests over gold-mine investment staged in Athens

Thousands of protesters in favor and against a three-year gold mine investment in northern Greece took to the streets here on Thursday, staging two separate rallies which disrupted traffic for hours in the city center.

Employees at the Skouries gold mine in Halkidiki peninsula, their families and other supporters of the project gathered outside the Development Ministry on Thursday morning and later marched to the parliament and camped on Syntagma square, chanting slogans in favor of the undisrupted continuation of operations in the mine.

"We say yes to development," miners shouted as they were protesting a recent decision by the newly elected Leftist government to suspend two of the mine's licenses and review the project.

A meeting between a delegation of employees with Alternate Minister of Environment Yannis Tsironis and Development ministry officials ended inconclusively.

Protesters demanded that the mining operations continue so that about 2,000 people working in the Canadian-run El Dorado investment and further 3,000 employees in companies collaborating with the mine will not lose their jobs, in particular at a time when one out of four Greeks is jobless.

The President of the Union of Workers at Halkidiki Yorgos Hatzis said they intended to stay in Athens "until the government takes a clear stance on the project in favor of the majority of the locals who want to continue working for the prosperity of their region."

The Radical Left SYRIZA ruling party has adopted the claims of activists opposing the investment due to environmental concerns and in March the Development Ministry suspended two of the mine's licenses. As a result only a small part of operations continues.

"We are against the investment in Skouries and we will use all possible legal means to back our position ... In any case we will support all workers," Energy Minister Panayiotis Lafazanis said recently.

Supporters of the mining operations argued that the investment plan has been approved by seven ministries in the past and Greece' s Audit Court.

Opponents of the project who staged a second protest on Thursday afternoon in a nearby square in central Athens insisted that the operations will damage the local environment and demanded the mine's closure.

Police had taken measures to ensure that the two demonstrations are kept apart to prevent clashes between supporters and opponents of the investment.

The two sides have scuffled several times over the past two years over the investment at Halkidiki, most recently a few weeks ago outside the mine.

The 1-billion-euro worth Skouries project had the warm support of the previous conservative-led government which presented it as an exemplary case for attracting foreign investments to boost growth and exit the debt crisis.

The Leftist government which took over in January this year objects to the investment and accuses the Greek subsidiary of El Dorado of mobilizing the workers to cover illegalities.

"We respect the concern of employees. We assure them no job position will be lost," the Development, Energy and Environment Ministry said in a statement on Thursday, stressing that "multinational companies will not be allowed to act as a state within a state in Greece."