How Skouries is drowning in dust and toxic waste for a bit of gold "The forest will become a forest again''. With these words, through their website, the mining corporation Hellas Gold is trying to find an excuse for the environmentally criminal acts it is carrying out right now in Skouries of Halkidiki. The problem is, that the aftermath of gold mining is far more difficult to fix than planting some trees again, so it won’t look like they interfered much on the natural environment. What will happen with all the toxic waste that will forever stay in the soil of the region? Just a small glimpse on what is needed for the mining of just 1 kg of gold: 150 kg of cyanide 40.000 kWh of energy 477.000 ml of water While 11,5 tons of carbon dioxide The corporation wants to mine over 380 tons of metals, which means 10 times more than all of the gold that has been mined in the region in the past two millennia. All this demand on energy and water, together with the negative effects of the chemicals used, make it one of the most environmentally destructive industrial activities, since the impact it has on the environment and the residents' health is irreversible. Despite the fact that Hellas Gold knows the overly risky use of cyanide, a substance which is considered the ''king of poisons'', stopping their activity doesn't seems to be out of the question for them. Of course, the goals of the company are foremost economical, and environmental concerns do not mean much to them. Even if Hellas Gold promises that their activity will not create health problems for the residents, when the water starts becoming orange coloured, something is certainly not going quite well. In the meantime, the local people are aware of the whole problem, and have protested a lot, in hopes of preventing the company from carrying out their plans. Some protesters have even been arrested with the charge of ''opposition''. Like it's not normal to protest against a private company that, despite creating some work opportunities, is destroying your lands by poisoning the water and making you breathe in harmful dust particles. In the end, is it worth it to allow a private company to cause irreversible damage on the region, so some jewelry can be made for people who live miles away, so as to preserve our wasteful human lifestyle? Maybe not...

Written by: Eliza Liarakou-Fischer

Related Case File Folder

Gold mining at Skouries, Halkidiki