| Rosia Montana, Romania
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The Rosia Montana valley.
Credit: Alburnus Maior
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Located in the Apuseni mountains of west central Romania, the Rosia Montana project would have become Europe's largest open-pit gold mine operation if constructed by Toronto-based Gabriel Resources. But thanks to widespread opposition and a court challenge by Alburnus Maior, a local community group, the Romanian government halted the approval process for the project in 2007,1 forcing Gabriel Resources to reconsider its mine plans and scale back its activities.2
In October 2008, a Romanian court ruling agreed with a Ministry of the Environment decision that suspended the Environmental Impact Assessment and permitting process for the Rosia Montana project. Later in the month, Hungary's Prime Minister Gyurcsany Ferenc declared during the Szeged bilateral meetings with Romania that "Hungary is continuously opposed to the Rosia Montana mine proposal. We will continue to oppose this investment."3
The government is also considering a bill that would ban cyanide mining, which would shut down the project for good.4 The bill to ban the use of cyanide in Romania may be introduced into the next parliament. According to a nation-wide poll commissioned by the Cyanide Free Romania! Coalition in 2008, 67% of the Romanian electorate supports the bill to ban cyanide in mining.5
Yet Gabriel Resources continues to push for this massive gold mine in spite of local, national, and international opposition and numerous rulings against the company. With hundreds of millions6 invested in the project, Gabriel plans to sue Romania for halting the approval process.7
In order for the project to be economically feasible, the Rosia Montana valley, the oldest documented settlement in Romania, would be carved into four open-pit mines. The neighboring valley of Corna would be transformed into an unlined cyanide storage "pond" covering a surface of up to 600 hectares (1,482 acres), held back by a 180-meter high dam. The pits would generate roughly 196.4 million tons of cyanide-laced waste.
Local opposition to the mine is based in part on the disastrous experience at the Baia Mare gold mine in Romania, where a cyanide spill in 2000 polluted the Tisza and Danube Rivers, contaminating the drinking water supplies of 2.5 million people and killing 1200 tons of fish. The type of dam proposed in Gabriel Resources' Feasibility Study could pose high economic and environmental risks for the company and the country. According to Dr. David Chambers, geophysicist and Executive Director of Center for Science in Public Participation, Gabriel Resources' Feasibility Study does not detail the risks of a landslide or an earthquake in this area, nor does it describe the standard to which the dam was designed in order to withstand this risk. If the dam were to fail, toxic mining residues could be released into the Abrud River near the dam -- potentially resulting in severe damage similar to the Baia Mare experience.
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Protest against proposed open-pit mine.
Credit: Alburnus Maior
| Should the mega-project fuly develop, more than 2000 people would be displaced--many of them are subsistence farmers who do not want to leave their lands--and nearly 900 homes would have to be torn down in order to make way for the mine project. The mine would employ a workforce of 250 to 300 people over the mine's estimated lifespan of 15 years, according to the International Finance Corporation (IFC), the World Bank's private lending arm.
Gabriel Resources, which has no previous mining experience, had approached the IFC for a loan believed to be approximately $250 million. According to Dundee Securities, a financial securities firm, Gabriel Resources' founder and chairman Frank Timis had two convictions for possessing heroin with intent to sell. An earlier venture of Mr. Timis, a Ukrainian petrol company, had been barred from the Toronto stock exchange. (Gabriel Resources is currently listed on the Toronto exchange.)
On October 10, 2002, the IFC announced that it would not financially support the controversial project. In an official statement, the IFC "concluded that it is in everybody's best interest that we do not pursue discussions with the company regarding IFC's involvement in the project."
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Rosia Montana valley.
Credit: Greenpeace
| The project has also been heavily criticized by a group of 83 economics professors from Romania's prestigious ASE University as well as by a host of international archaeologists who are worried about the project's destructive impact on the area's unique Roman mine galleries and other archaeological treasures. Church leaders have also spoken out against the proposal, which would destroy eight churches and nine cemeteries.
For more information:
Alburnus Maior
Images of Rosia Montana, including existing mining operations
Gold is Not Enough Financial Times, 08 April, 2004
Comments on the Rosia Montana Feasibility Study by Dr. David Chambers of the Center for Science in Public Participation
Evaluating Risk: Investors' Guide to Gabriel Resources' Rosia Montana Proposal
Taking it To the Top. The climb of Mont Blanc to call attention to the campaign to save Rosia Montana.
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Campaigner at Mont Blanc's peak. Credit: Alburnus Maior
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[Updated November 2008]
- "Romania blocks Rosia Montana gold mine." Metals Week. September 12, 2007.
- "Gabriel Announces Plans to Scale Back Activities at Rosia Montana." Press Release. December 4, 2007.
- Marinas, Radu. " A Romanian cyanide ban could poleaxe Gabriel's gold mega project." Reuters. December 6, 2007.
- Alburnus Maior Press Release: Hungary is opposed and will continue to oppose the Rosia Montana proposal declares Hungary's Prime Minister. 21 October 2008.
- Cyanide Free Romania! Coaltion Press Release: Bogdan Olteanu: Give the Cyanide Ban a Chance! October 6, 2008.
- See footnote 2.
- "Gabriel plans to sue Romania" Metals Week. November 12, 2007.
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