Eldorado, miners take legal action over Greek project

ATHENS (Reuters) - Canada's Eldorado Gold (Toronto:ELD.TO - News) and workers at its disputed gold mine project in northern Greece filed a new legal complaint on Friday to overturn a government decision which led to its activities being halted, court officials said.

Eldorado's complaint at one of Greece's top courts came after Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras's leftist government announced last week that it was revoking the permit for the $1 billion project run by Eldorado, one of the biggest foreign investments in the country, arguing that the company had violated contractual terms.

Eldorado stopped operations at the mine in the Halkidiki region as a result, putting most of its 2,000 employees on suspension.

Eldorado's Greek subsidiary, Hellas Gold (HELr.AT), and its Greek workers, argue in their latest legal complaint that the decision was illegal and against the Greek constitution, the court officials said.

Eldorado said the Greek government's decision to put the project on ice violated the principles of good administration and the separation of the judicial and executive powers, according to the officials.

(Reporting by Angeliki Koutantou in Athens, editing by David Evans)