Website www.egoldfields.com Founded 2000 | Traded as TSX: EGU Headquarters Vancouver, Canada Number of employees 244 | |
Subsidiaries European Goldfields Romania SRL, Hellas Gold S.A., EUROPEAN GOLDFIELDS (SERVICES) LIMITED | ||
European Goldfields Ltd. was an EU focused, Whitehorse based Canadian precious metals company engaged in gold, silver and copper exploration, development and production. The mining rights it owned to land in Greece, Romania and Turkey gave it access to over 10 million ounces of 2P gold reserves in addition to over 80 million ounces of silver.
Contents
Frank Timiş, the 9th richest Romanian was a major shareholder in the company from 2000 to 2006 (his share ranged from 15% to 18.9%); it was from him that the company acquired 21% of its 95% interest in Hellas Gold. Ellaktor, Greece's biggest construction and civil engineering company, owned 19.36% of European Goldfields and is also the owner of all outstanding shares of Hellas Gold (5%).
In December 2011 Eldorado Gold initiated a $2.5 billion friendly takeover of European Goldfields. The deal came just after Centerra Gold attempted to buy the company and just before European Goldfields was to vote on a $750m (£479m) credit deal offered to it by Qatar Holdings, to finance the Skouries and Olympias gold projects. The acquisition was completed in February 2012.
Operations
European Goldfields had two main subsidiaries, Hellas Gold (Greece) and Certej (Romania).
Turkey - Joint ventured with Aldridge Minerals, exploration occurs in the area of Ardala.