Rosia Montana - no improvement in sight for tarnished gold project

The recent public debate organised in Bucharest to discuss the controversial USD 500 million Rosia Montana gold mine project have been disrupted and debased by the actions of the projects sponsor, the Canadian company Rosia Montana Gold Corporation (RMGC), allege Romanian groups. The Bucharest-based TERRA Mileniul III and the Centre for Legal Resources maintain that the discussions taking place as part of the gold project's environmental impact assessment (EIA) procedure have been tainted by RMGC's bussing in of rowdy supporters of the project and also because of crucial missing project documentation.

Emilian Burdusel, director of the Ecological Club UNESCO Pro Natura, who participated at the public debates which concluded on August 25, stated: "As the mediation from the environmental authority representatives was far from ideal, the Rosia Montana public debates in Bucharest deteriorated into a farce, with the minimum conditions for a decent debate completely lacking. It was remarkable to witness the vice-president of RMGC, John Aston, intent on making provocative comments, answering questions in an accusatory manner which provoked the audience even more, thus generating an even greater scandal. The environmental authority should have stopped the debate and reorganised it with much clearer rules and much better mediators."

Having assessed the risks and problems related to the RMGC project [1], the groups believe that the Romanian State will not benefit from the Rosia Montana project, which is also jeopardising 974 households in the projects vicinity, with an estimated 2,000 people threatened with resettlement.

Ionut Apostol, executive director of TERRA Mileniul III, a CEE Bankwatch Network member group, said: "The RMGC project should have been rejected a long time ago, based on a simple analysis of the costs and benefits for the Romanian State. Given the devastation in store for local communities, it's astonishing that the potential royalty from this project for the state budget is only two percent of the annual mining production value."

The Romanian groups have been alarmed by the 'low-moderate' risk assessment that RMGC has attached to the conclusions of the EIA presented for public consultation. Yet with the extraction of 13 million tonnes of ore per year, Rosia Montana would be the largest gold mine operation in Europe. Notably, RMGC is a mining company with no previous mining portfolio whatsoever.

Still missing from the public consultation are: key documentation related to the technical capacity and experience of RMGC for cyanide mining operations; the promoter's financial capacity; explanations regarding the illegal mining operations that the promoter has conducted so far in Romania, which were sanctioned both by the Environmental Guard and courts of law; explanations about the criminal investigation regarding the establishment of RMGC SA.

Moreover, the project's potential is being called into question. Justin Andrei, an independent geophysics expert based in Bucharest and former Head of the Geological Institute of Romania, stated that: "The gold-bearing mass containing the richest content, an average of 2 grams/tonne of gold, is due to be extracted in the first 5-6 years of the project. Subsequently the content will drop below 1.2 grams/tonne of gold, and RMGC could then be tempted to go for bankruptcy." Mine closure and environmental and social regeneration would then be left to the Romanian government.

Detailed comments on the environmental impact assessment for the Rosia Montana project have been submitted to the Ministry of Environment. Catalina Radulescu, lawyer within the Centre for Legal Resources, stated that "for all these reasons, we asked the Romanian authorities, i.e. the Romanian Government through the Ministry of Environment, to reject RMGCs request for environmental permit".

For more information:

Ionut Apostol
Executive Director, TERRA Mileniul III
Tel: +4021 312 68 70

Email: ionut AT bankwatch.org

http://terraiii.ngo.ro

Catalina Radulescu
Lawyer, The Centre for Judicial Resources
Tel: +4021 212 96 90

Email: cradulescu AT crj.ro
http://www.crj.ro

Notes for editors:

[1] These risks and problems include: the elimination of invaluable archaeological sites; the loss of cultural and historical heritage; the risk of dam breaching accidents within the mines tailings pond; the overflow of contaminated water from the tailings pond; the generation of acid water mobilising heavy metals which would pollute the entire area; hydrogen cyanide emissions in the tailings pond; accidents during cyanide transport (two 16 ton cyanide trucks on the road every day); the irredeemable transformation of the Rosia Montana area; the destruction of a vital Romanian community.