...Dundee Precious Metals has overcome one more important obstacle to its plans for a new open pit gold mine in southern Bulgaria. A three-member panel of the Supreme Administrative Court has dismissed the appeals filed against the approval, by the Bulgarian Minister of Environment and Waters, of the environmental impact assessment for the Company's Krumovgrad Gold Project...This decision...is subject to appeal to the five member panel...The project, which faces fierce opposition by the local community, was given at the end of last year a provisional go-ahead by the Bulgarian environment minister, who approved the company's environmental impact assessment (EIA). This allows the Canadian company to proceed with the permitting process for the construction of the process plant, the integrated mine waste facility and the open pit mine. Mining activities...cannot begin until the EIA appeals are resolved. The people living in the...town of Krumovgrad...have been relentless in their protests against plans by...Dundee Precious Metals to open a big open-pit gold mine...The people from Krumovgrad and the nearby villages...are worried that the planned waste facility would be just one kilometer away from the town and one kilometer away from the river...The...company has repeatedly assured that Krumovgrad gold project will be beneficial for Bulgaria and the local community. Under mounting public pressure the Canadian company was forced to abandon plans for using cyanide technology...