the Constitutional Council opens an appeal against the Montagne d’Or project

A big decision. The Constitutional Council declares unconstitutional part of the old mining code which allowed the renewal of mining concessions without taking into account the environmental consequences. This arbitration opens a way of appeal against the controversial Montagne d’Or project in Guyana.

It follows a priority question of constitutionality (QPC) which had been referred to the Constitutional Council by the Council of State. This had been seized by the France nature environment association following the renewal by government decree of four mining concessions in Guyana to the Boulanger Mining Company.

The association was counting on an unconstitutionality to try to prevent the advance of the Golden Mountain, the largest primary gold extraction project ever proposed in France, carried by the Russian-Canadian consortium Nordgold-Orea mining.

The old mining code, in its version prior to the Climate law of August 22, 2021, allowed concessions to be extended when the deposits on which they were located were still being exploited.

But the Constitutional Council considered that “the legislator disregarded (…) articles 1 and 3 of the Environmental Charter” according to which “everyone has the right to live in a balanced and healthy environment”and “every person 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”.

“You should know that the environmental charter has existed for seventeen years and this is the first time that the Constitutional Council has ruled on this article 1 to sanction a law that is contrary to it.”

Olivier Gourbinot, lawyer at France Nature Environneent

at AFP

This decision of the Constitutional Council applies to files that have not yet been definitively validated, that is to say filed before the reform of the mining code but whose examination is still in progress or which are before a court.