Guyana's administrative court on Thursday ordered the state to "extend" the mining concessions of the Compagnie Montagne d'Or in Guyana, canceling the implicit refusal of the Minister of the Economy Bruno Le Maire.
The court "ordered the state to extend" "within six months" the concessions, keystones of the controversial mining project known as the Gold Mountain.
He thus "canceled" the implicit refusal of Bruno Le Maire to extend the mining concessions of the Compagnie Montagne d'Or in Guyana.
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Based on the overrun of the regulatory two-year investigation period, the Minister of the Economy implicitly rejected on January 21, 2019 the 25-year renewal of the mining concessions of the Montagne d'Or company (CMO), thus bringing legally a halt to the largest primary gold mining project ever proposed in France, led by the Russian-Canadian consortium Nordgold-Columbus Gold.
"Lack of serious dispute"
The administrative court considered that CMO "presents sufficient elements justifying its technical and financial capacities to exploit the concessions".
Justice also underlined the "lack of serious challenge" of Bruno Le Maire, to justify his implicit rejection.
The concessions (with a surface area of 40 km2) are located in the municipalities of Saint-Laurent du Maroni and Apatou, in the middle of the forest, between two reserves with high biodiversity value.
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In the coming years, the company plans to mine and process an 85-tonne gold deposit using closed-circuit cyanidation.
During the hearing on December 3, the public rapporteur pointed out, in this dispute, the "weakness" and the lack of "relevance" of the State's arguments to justify its refusal.
It is a "difficult point of the file" which is "not to the advantage of the administration" added the public rapporteur.
