Canadian Dundee Precious Metals (DPM) has received a positive grade from Bulgaria's Environment Ministry for its gold mining project in the southeastern town of Krumovgrad, the company said on Wednesday.
In June 2010, DPM's wholly-owned subsidiary Balkan Mineral and Mining revised its gold extraction project, scrapping plans to use cyanide to process the ore.
In addition, the newly proposed project does not involve a pond and will occupy a smaller area than the initially planned site at the Ada Tepe field near Krumovgrad. The investment is estimated at around USD 100 million and the project is expected to turn out between 800,000 and one million tonnes of gold concentrate a year.
According to DPM estimations, the field contains some 25 tonnes of gold, while mining is expected take up eight to ten years.