ATHENS: Greece's conservative government has approved a long-disputed gold mining project held up for years by environmental concerns, the embassies of Canada and the United States said Friday.

The embassies said in a joint statement that they "welcome the signing (of the agreement) today between Hellas Gold (a wholly-owned subsidiary of Canadian-based Eldorado Gold Corporation) and the government of Greece."

The embassies said the deal "will bring almost 1.7 billion euros ($2.1 billion) in investment from North America over a period of 23 years" and create up to 5,000 direct and indirect jobs to develop the Kassandra Mines in the northeastern peninsula of Halkidiki.

Eldorado Gold has also pledged a social development programme amounting to 70 million euros in the local communities over the life of the investment, the statement said. The goldmine project on Skouries mountain has sparked years of protests, including a raid in 2013, when hooded militants threw Molotov cocktails at the mine worksite, wounding a guard and damaging equipment.

The previous leftist government in 2015 stalled work on the goldmine over alleged contract violations.