France Nature Environnement (FNE), a French environmental organization has urged the President of the country, Emmanuel Macron, to ensure the holding of a public debate over a project of Alexey Mordashov's Nordgold envisaging gold mining in French Guiana.
On July 5, Nordgold submitted to the French CNDP in charge of public debates arrangement, an evaluation of the construction cost of the project’s buildings, infrastructure, as well as industrial equipment and power grids of €80 million.
According to French law, the amount not exceeding the threshold of €150 million allows to avoid a public debate over the project. At the same time, in May 2017, Nordgold in its letter to CNDP estimated the cost of such work several times more – at €260 million.
The environmentalists believe that such a sharp drop in the cost of infrastructure works is a trick to bypass the public debates and not make public a detailed information regarding the project.