The Vaasa administrative court dismissed Dragon Mining Ltd.'s appeal of the rejection of its new environmental permit for the Orivesi gold mine in Finland.

The Centre for Economic Development, Transport and the Environment of Pirkanmaa was also a party in the appeal.

The court's decision was split with two votes each in favor of and against the appeal, and the chairman's vote decided the outcome, the company said June 13. Dragon said it has received legal advice that it has not violated the existing environmental permit conditions and plans to appeal the decision to the Supreme Administrative Court in Finland.

In mid-April, the company received a favorable decision regarding an appeal against the environmental permit for testing mining operations at its Faboliden gold project in Sweden.