This is a first step to prevent the controversial Montagne d’Or project in French Guiana. This Friday, the Constitutional Council declared unconstitutional part of the old mining code which allowed the renewal of mining concessions without taking into account the environmental consequences.
This priority question of constitutionality (QPC) had been referred to the Constitutional Council by the Council of State, seized by the association France nature environment (FNE). The association relied on unconstitutionality to try to prevent the controversial Montagne d’Or project.
The old mining code, in its version prior to the overhaul due to the Climate Law of August 22, 2021, allowed concessions to be extended by law when the deposits to which they relate were still being mined.
The Environmental Charter violated
The Constitutional Council considered that, concerning this possibility given to mining companies, “the legislator disregarded (…) Articles 1 and 3 of the Environmental Charter” according to which “everyone has the right to live in a balanced and respectful of health”, and “everyone must, under the conditions defined by law, prevent the damage that he is likely to cause to the environment or, failing that, limit the consequences”.
This decision of the Institutional Council applies to cases in progress and to those which are still before a court, such as that of the Montagne d’Or. However, it does not apply to cases that have been definitively judged, so as not to be retroactive.
The Montagne d’Or mine is the largest primary gold extraction project ever proposed in France, led by the Russian-Canadian consortium Nordgold-Orea mining (ex-Columbus gold). The government considers it “incompatible” with its objectives in terms of ecological transition. On the occasion of the first Ecological Defense Council of May 23, 2019, Emmanuel Macron spoke in favor of stopping this mining project.
Thus, in February 2021, the government reaffirmed its opposition to the mining project by filing an appeal once morest the administrative court which had ordered it, in December, to extend the mining concessions, which it had refused to do. “The Montagne d’Or project is clearly incompatible with our environmental ambitions,” reaffirmed Barbara Pompili, Minister of Ecology.
