Arbitration over Eldorado mine plans starts this month

Greece plans to start an arbitration process in August to settle its differences with Canada’s Eldorado Gold Corporation over a gold mine development, the Greek Energy Ministry said yesterday. Energy Minister Giorgos Stathakis met Eldorado’s management in Athens on Wednesday and the two sides discussed the issue, the ministry said in a statement. Eldorado is developing the Skouries and Olympias projects in northern Greece, where it also operates the Stratoni mine. Skouries has been a flash point with authorities, with differences persisting for years over testing methods applied to comply with environmental regulations. “The ministry believes that resorting to arbitration with [Eldorado unit] Hellas Gold is the best solution to sort out all [outstanding] issues,” the statement added. The arbitration process is expected to finish by the end of the year, a ministry spokesman told Reuters. Greece has said it wants to ensure that Hellas Gold respects its contractual obligations. Licensing for Olympias is in the final stage, while permits for Skouries are pending, the ministry said. Germany’s Deutsche Telekom, has lost market share to smaller rivals in recent years. A sluggish economy after a seven-year debt crisis and three international bailouts has also dented operations. But hefty spending in new high-speed VDSL broadband services and a fast-growing pay-TV business have helped the group win back fixed-line customers. OTE said it would continue to invest in new technology as Greece shows early signs of economic recovery. Earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortization (EBITDA) came in at 313.9 million euros in the three months to June, up from 310.9 million euros a year earlier. EBITDA from Greek mobile operations rose 3 percent to 99.9 million euros, accounting for about 32 percent of the group’s total core profit. OTE had about 7.7 million customers in its home mobile busi-