This Wednesday, the Bordeaux court rendered a decision against the Montagne d’Or project.
It is a decision applauded by many NGOs. The Bordeaux administrative court of appeal rejected, this Wednesday, November 27, the controversial Montagne d’Or project in Guyana.
The judges considered that this mining project presented a “risk of serious harm to the environment” due to its “extremely polluting” nature and the scale of its industrial dimension.
Led by the mining company Montagne d’Or, a joint venture between the Canadian company Columbus Gold (exploration) and the Russian company Nordgold (extraction), the project aimed to exploit a gold concession of 800 hectares, or approximately 40 km² at western Guyana.
It promised an annual production of 6.7 tonnes of gold for twelve years, thus becoming the largest gold mining project ever envisaged in France.
A project at the heart of a legal battle
This case, a symbol of the tensions between economic development and environmental protection, has been marked by numerous legal twists and turns.
In 2020, the Cayenne administrative court annulled the decision of the Ministry of the Economy refusing to extend two mining concessions for 25 years. This cancellation was confirmed in 2021 by the Bordeaux administrative court of appeal.
A major turning point, however, came in February 2022, when the Constitutional Council invalidated a provision of the old mining code, deemed contrary to the fundamental law, because it authorized the renewal of concessions without environmental assessment.
This turnaround pushed the Council of State, in October 2023, to annul the decisions favorable to the project and to refer the case to the Bordeaux court.
The decision rendered this Wednesday constitutes a victory for environmental defenders. However, the promoters of the Montagne d’Or project retain the possibility of appealing to the Council of State.
