Eldorado Gold Corporation is a Canadian company that owns and operates gold mines in Turkey, Greece and Canada. Since its merger with European Goldfields in 2011 the company has been pursuing the development of the Skouries mine, Olympias mine and Stratoni mine in Greece. The company previously developed and operated gold mines in China, Brazil and Mexico. Headquartered in Vancouver and listed on the Toronto and New York Stock Exchanges, Eldorado Gold has developed and operated assets from several merged companies HRC Developments Corporation, Afcan Mining Corporation, Sino Gold Mining, Brazauro Resources, Integra Gold, as well as European Goldfields. Corporate history The Eldorado Corporation was incorporated in Bermuda on April 2, 1992, by several entrepreneurs who worked together at Bema Gold. The group had agreed to a contract that would give them a 70% interest in the Mexican La Colorada mining project if they were able to bring the mine into commercial production. In early 1994, La Colorada became Eldorado's first productive mine and by the end of the year they had purchased its remaining interest. Meanwhile, they also fulfilled a similar contract, conducting development-related work in exchange for ownership interest, in the La Trinidad project, also in Mexico. While the mine began production in 1996, and Eldorado gained 100% ownership in 1997, it was shut down and then sold off in 1998 as the price of gold collapsed; La Colorada was sold in 2000 for the same reason. In April 1996, after fending off a hostile takeover bid by Glamis Gold the previous year, the company was renamed to Eldorado Gold Corporation and had its domicile moved to Vancouver, British Columbia. That year, they acquired the Brazilian São Bento, as well as exploration properties in Brazil and Turkey, from Gencor in exchange for a 43% stake in the company. Gencor made a similar deal with Vancouver Stock Exchange-listed HRC Developments Corporation, 43% of the company for several exploration properties, and then Eldorado and HRC merged to form one company. São Bento would be the company's sole operating mine from 2000 to 2006 as it focused on developing the Kişladağ project in Turkey. Eldorado Gold increased the gold production from 64,298 ounces in 2005 to 632,539 ounces in 2010, despite the closure of the São Bento in 2007, by bringing Kişladağ into production in 2006, acquiring the Toronto Stock Exchange-listed Afcan Mining Corporation for its Tanjianshan Mine which it had