Mining Gold Trumps Greek Democracy

?In the land that gave birth to democracy, democracy has been abolished,? asserts Lazaros Toskas, a leader in the campaign against mining on the Halkidiki Peninsula in northeast Greece. He is speaking in reference to several large mining projects near his hometown that have been given a green light by the government, despite fierce local opposition. Toskas is a lifelong resident of Megali Panagia, a small village neighboring Aristotle?s place of birth. It is located just three kilometers from the Skouries exploration site where Canadian-based Eldorado Gold plans to develop an open-pit gold and copper mine. Skouries is one of three projects on the peninsula that make up the Cassandra mine complex, alongside the Olympias mining exploration site and Stratoni, a silver, lead and zinc mine already in production.

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