TORONTO (miningweekly.com) – TSX- and NYSE-listed gold producer Alamos Gold on Wednesday announced that it had received the final signatures approving the environmental-impact assessment (EIA) for its Agi Dagi gold project.

The Turkish Environment and Urbanisation Ministry responsible for reviewing the EIA, had signed and issued formal approval in the form of an EIA ‘positive decision certificate’ for Agi Dagi.

"This represents another step forward for our development projects in Turkey and reaffirms the government's commitment to the mining industry," president and CEO John McCluskey said.

Meanwhile, Alamos continued work on amending the EIA for the Kirazli project to include an assessment of the potential cumulative impacts of proposed projects in the region, while it waited for a positive resolution of the legal process.

Alamos had last August received an EIA ‘positive decision certificate’ for Kirazli, from the Turkish Environment and Urbanisation Ministry.

However, early this year, the Canakkale Administrative Court issued an injunction order to the Ministry regarding its approval of the EIA, on the basis that it failed to assess the “cumulative impacts” of the project in conjunction with other potential mining projects in the region.

Given that there had not previously been any requirement to include such an assessment in such an EIA report, the Ministry formally challenged the court's decision to temporarily revoke the EIA on this basis.

A ruling on the interim relief remedy requested by the company from the High Court was expected in the fourth quarter. The company expected to be in a position to submit the revised EIA by the end of September if it was unsuccessful in appealing the court's decision to the Turkish High Court.

Alamos expected to produce the first gold from Kirazli, the first of the company's Turkish projects, within 18 months of receiving the outstanding forestry and operating permits.

With about $390-million in cash, no debt and strong ongoing cash flow generation, Alamos expected to fund development of these projects internally.