The parliament of Romania has postponed to November a special commission’s report on a bill that would let Canadian Gabriel Resources (TSX:GBU) build what it’d be Europe’s largest open-pit gold mine.
According to news agency Agerpress (in Romanian), lower house speaker Valeriu Zgonea said the decision to extend the deadline to Nov. 10 was based on a request of the commission’s members, who were unable to produce a recommendation on the future of Rosia Montana by Oct. 20, the original deadline.
Gabriel Resources, which has been waiting 14 years for the approval, became the centre of attention last year, after an important figure of Romania’s 1989 revolution, left his party over the debated gold mine.
Thousands of Romanians have been rallying on the streets calling on the government to reject the project, as it will use cyanide to mine 314 tonnes of gold and 1,500 tonnes of silver from the rich deposit.
If rejected, the Canadian company said it would sue the country for as much as $4 billion of damages.
The debated mine has cost the junior miner more than $580 million and no fewer than seven different CEOs, since the Canadian firm first obtained the concession in 1999.
Rosia Montana is a community of sixteen villages located in a district known as the Golden Quadrilateral, in the South Apuseni Mountains of Romania, one of Europe’s most prolific mining districts for over 2,000 years.
The concession, which extends over four of those villages, was subject to open pit mining by the state mining company, Minvest, until 2006. Following the closure of the mine with the loss of thousands of jobs, unemployment is reported to be 80% in the region.
Gabriel Resources, the parent company of Rosia Montana Gold Corp. in a partnership with the Romanian government, owns an 81% share in the proposed open-pit mining project, while state-run CNCAF Minvest holds the 19% remaining stake.
Image: Screengrab from Romanian TV News
9 Comments
rosiamontananews
We welcome debate among the Romanian people as the more the issues are understood the more people will recognise how important the Rosia Montana mine is to Romania’s economic future. For more facts about the mine then please go here http://www.rosiamontananews.com
Petre
Romanian will stop any serious investor from ever trying to open new mines in their country. Do Romanian need billions of dollars in revenue…?
Maybe only Albania is in a tighter spot presently in Europe.
frankinca
Where are all the dissenters who were throwing the word bombs in an attempt to destroy a reasonable resurrection of an old mining area. Word bomb throwers are people who use no facts but just glittering generalities to promote their cause, which typically is to stand in the way of progress. The mine in my view and from all I have read here, is viable and truly a positive for Romania, it’s people and it’s economy which will benefit everyone.
Leonid Budge
Benefits to Romania:
$2.4 billion ڠdirect benefits to the Romanian State in the forms of dividends, salary taxes, royalties, and other duties.
$2.4 billion spent in Romania on human resources, electricity,
transportation, construction, process reagents, spare parts, and other
related activities.
Overall, the Roşia Montană mine has the potential to add more than $24 billion to
Romania’s GDP over a three-year construction period and 16-year mine life.
Its time to build the project and many more in every sector of the
economy. Protesting on the streets is not in the interests of Romania.
Leonid Budge
Common Sense from the PM
Mr. Ponta said he isn’t yet confident that parliament will green light
Rosia Montana, which could become Europe’s largest open-pit gold mine.
“In the end I think the majority of Romanian society will understand
that if we respect environmental protection standards, if we have
benefits in taxes, royalties, jobs, we should do what all the modern
countries in Europe and beyond are doing to take advantage of their
natural resources,” he said.
Commonsense – not extreme leftist politics – what good for Romania.
this project will get built and will be a landmark transaction for the
Romanian economy. Those who oppose it should surrender to the will of
the people as the majority of Romanians want a better life and a better
future.
Leonid Budge
“…a properly regulated economic development can maintain and even
enhance biodiversity. This is particularly the case with the extractive
and mining industries which are acutely aware of the need for
transparency in their development of environmentally sound projects.
Take, for instance, the controversial Roşia Montană gold mine project in
Romania which looks set to create over 3,000 jobs in an area of 80%
unemployment. There have been many protests about potential pollution,
environmental damage and biodiversity loss, but the company – Roşia
Montană Gold Corporation (RMGC), keen to allay fears, has gone to great
lengths and considerable expense to produce an eco-friendly project that
ticks all of the biodiversity boxes.”
Struan Stevenson, MEP
President of the Intergroup on Climate Change, Biodiversity & Sustainable Development
Leonid Budge
“RMGC have even pledged to deposit all of the finance necessary for the
complete environmental rehabilitation of the Roşia Montană gold mine,
including a scheme for long-term monitoring of the rehabilitated
facility. Currently it is estimated that the cost of full environmental
rehabilitation would amount to in excess of $135 million, but these
figures will be upgraded annually by independent experts as the mining
project proceeds over its predicted 16 years’ lifespan.
This is the kind of reassurance that the public demands where
large-scale extractive projects are undertaken. From the outset, the
Roşia Montană Gold Corporation has put in place measures or proposals to
end the historical pollution associated with the ancient mine which can
trace its origins back to Roman times. The improvement of water quality
in the region has become a key priority for the company. Similarly,
RMGC wish to ensure that their project will have a minimum impact on
biodiversity during the construction phase and will actually produce a
net-enhancement of biodiversity during the mine’s rehabilitation
process. This is the kind of corporate responsibility that the EU
insists in shaping its 2020 biodiversity targets.”
Struan Stevenson, MEP
President of the Intergroup on Climate Change, Biodiversity & Sustainable Development
Leonid Budge
70% of Romanians want the project to go ahead and the parliament is likely to approve it in the coming week. If Romania does not approve this it will be a step backwards into the dark ages for Romania and will delay economic recovery for another few generations.
Andreea
I bet you feel silly now.
Parliament just rejected that draft. And where, oh where, did you find that number (70% of Romanians approve this project)? There was never a referendum, so that’s speculation.
There was one dude who made such a study and had those numbers and, weeks later, he became a spokeperson for the prime minister.