The arbitration between the State and Hellas Gold officially started yesterday, after the arbitration panel was established.  According to sources the position of presiding arbitrator has been taken by Konstantinos Menoudakos, former president of the Council of State and current president of the Hellenic Data Protection Authority. Mr. Menoudakos was appointed to the post of presiding arbitrator by the President of the Hellenic Supreme Court in accordance with the arbitration clause and was accepted by both arbitrators, Mr. Chryssikos and Mr. Lykoudis who had been appointed some time ago by the State and Hellas Gold.  In practical terms the results of the arbitration process are expected to be known shortly, within 90 days at most.

The key topic is the metallurgy plant at Madem Lakkos, which in effect relates to integration of Hellas Gold’s operations in the Halkidiki area.  The arbitration notice states that the technical study for the metallurgy plant in the Madem Lakkos area at Stratoni which will be used to process concentrates from Olympias and Skouries, which was filed in December 2014, is not complete and so breaches the transfer agreement and the project’s environmental Terms and conditions.  For its part the company points out that it fully believes that the technical study is fully documented and in accord with the transfer agreement, the business plan and the approved environmental terms and conditions for the project.

source: Newspaper Naftemporiki, 3/11/2017