The 1,100 residents of the village of Pontokomi outside of Kozani, will join the thousands of other their fellow citizens who have vacated their villages in order to allow Greece's Public Power Corporation to mine the large lignite deposits in the area.
The vote was unanimous in Pontokomi, with residents fearing that the mining would be bad for their health. Infrastructure to accomodate the move of the whole village is in place and will be complete by 2015. This will mark the seventh village to have been relocated because of the mining.
Lignite is the lowest rank of coal and used almost exclusively as fuel for steam-electric power generation. Greece is the fifth largest producer of this coal in the world. With the heaviest deposits found in northern Greece
Kathimerini
posted on Wednesday, September 17