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Gold mining cyanide attempts in
Bulgaria Water protection endangering
activities Conference Budapest, 01-02.02.2011
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Projects background

• Canadian Dundee Precious Metals (DPM) with his
  Bulgarian company Chelopech mining at Chelopech
  gold and copper mine
• Bulgarian company Gorubso at Kurdjali
• Bulgarian company KCM, Plovdiv
• Other attempts for cyanide leaching like village
  Popinci, Krumovgrad
• 37 proven, economically viable deposits of gold
  and several old tailings dam from copper mines

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Main problematic issues (apart from the cyanide
use as such)

• violations of the Bulgarian Environmental Act
  and other relevant legislation
• underestimation of the potential risks and low
  quality of the EIAs
• pro forma public consultations
• contradiction and non-compliance of the EU
  directives

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Contribution of the responsible state
authorities to these problems

• choosing the scope of the public consultations
  incl. the administrative division issue
• issuing an EIA permit for an already built
  illegal cyanide leaching installation
• total rejection of any attempt of the civil
  society to influence the cyanide projects
• deliberate elimination of the civil society from
  discussions and legislative initiatives

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Cyanide Free Bulgaria coalition
non-formal body from around 10 environmental
NGOs, mining NGOs and local communities since
2005 (the first investment proposal for cyanide
leaching)
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What we have done

• Statements and participation at the EIA and IPPC
  procedures
• Protests against the lack of reaction to our
  statements and the low quality of the EIAs
• Communication with the relevant governmental
  bodies European and national

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What we have done

• Subscriptions and petitions
• Court cases
• Legislative proposal for cyanide ban
• Media work
• Work with the relevant financing institutions
  like EBRD

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Achievements

• local resistance to the cyanide technology
• public intolerance to the cyanide technology
• alerts to the financing institutions, EP and EC
• growing media coverage of our position

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Achievements

• DPM positive EIA cancelled by the Supreme
  Administrative Court the company has gave up
  the cyanide technology at Chelopech and
  Krumovgrad
• initial attempts at Popinci and Chepelare
  stopped by a strong local resistance
• provoked increase of the numbers and the amounts
  of the penalties

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Lessons learned

• A very low quality EIA report has been granted
  with positive decision
• Number of violations of the Bulgarian and EU
  legislation hasnt been noticed by the Company
  and State experts
• The public interest has been neglected by the
  responsible national authorities
• The cyanide leaching technology is NOT a BAT !!!

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Thank you for the attention!
Daniel Popov dpopov_at_bankwatch.org Centre for
Environmental Information and Education National
coordinator of CEE Bankwatch network
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