3 minute read
1. In Focus: Land Reclamation
We are committed to rehabilitate old deposit areas of previous operators (before we acquired the Kassandra Mines) and currently we reclaim areas in Stratoni and Olympias. The Olympias rehabilitation project is one of the largest environmental rehabilitation projects in Greece, through which we remove old tailings, waste rock and polluted soil, restore the original relief, improve soil health and revegetate areas.
Olympias - Area Platia Phire
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Olympias - Old Arsenopyrite Stockpile
Olympias - Historic Tailings Pond
2.8
hectares total area
• Removed old waste rock at 80% of the area • Restored original terrain height and slope • Planted vegetation • Used the location for the new Olympias paste plant, which prevents additional land disturbance.
• Removed all contaminated soil • Rehabilitated and planted vegetation at 70% of the area • Rehabilitate and plant vegetation in remaining 30% by 2021.
• Removed contaminated soil and old tailings • Removed and reprocessed 2.4 million tonnes of old wet tailings (tailings deposited as dry-stack) and 0.3 million tonnes of residues and contaminated soil through our Kokkinolakkas TMF • Reclaimed 150 hectares up to date • Planted vegetation.
3.2
hectares total area
30
hectares total area
Old Land
2012
2005
2005
Current landscape
Tailings Pond
Current landscape
We have designed our projects for our reclamation activities to occur in parallel with our mines’ operation, in order to restore the land harmonically with the surrounding landscape, with the percentage of land reclamation compared to land used reaching 10% for Stratoni – Madem Lakkos and 50% for Olympias.
Reclaimed Land
2020
2020
2020
Future landscape
Tailings Pond
Future reference landscape
Stratoni - Old Chevallier area
3.5
hectares total area
• Completed restoration at the slopes • Remediate area, applied soil covering and hydro seeding.
• Completed restoration in 2 hectares • Removed contaminated soil • Apply soil additives and healthy soil • Revegetated area.
• Excavated all contaminated soils • Covered top soil • Restored morphological and physiographic conditions • Planted vegetation (hydroseeding).
Stratoni - Old pyrite stockpile ‘Platia +53’
2
hectares total area
Stratoni Beach
Current landscape
Skouries
Skouries antiquities
Current landscape 2005
2005
Curent landscape
Before hydroseeding
Landscape during operation of Karatzas Lakkos TMF
Reclaimed Land
2020
2020
Future landscape after rehabilitation
After hydroseeding
Future landscape after rehabilitation Stratoni Beach
Future reference landscape
Skouries antiquities
Future reference landscape
The plant nursery
To facilitate reclamation, we co-founded ‘Greek Nurseries’, a fully verticalized plant nursery near our Olympias mine, which ranges from seed collection out of the natural flora, seed selection process, quality control and finally planting, plant growing and transplantation.
The plant was built on land that was formerly a mine concentrate area
Employs over 20
people Includes approximately
1,000,000 plants across 320
different species
Provides plants for our reclamation activities, which are watered with treated mine water from our Olympias mine, in order to minimize use of any freshwater. Covers
15
hectares (making it one of the largest plant nurseries in Greece, mainly due to the large number of plants and plant species)
