“Last week, we received the Hungarian Environment Ministry’s answer to our request for a position on the Rosia Montana investment, as per the Espoo Convention which requires its parties to consult before launching a project with a possible trans-border environmental impact. The Hungarian officials said they had analyzed the documentation but that they did not go into detail and they reject the entire project,” Borbely told MEDIAFAX on Tuesday.
The minister suggested that Hungary’s position is likely based on its Parliament’s decision to ban cyanide mining.
“They told us that they have no questions for the investor, but they simply reject the entire project,” said the minister. He added that, in accordance with the Convention on Environmental Impact Assessment in a Transboundary Context, signed in Espoo, Finland in 1991, Romania is not required to halt the investment authorization process.
Rosia Montana Gold Corporation (RMGC), a joint venture consisting of Canada’s Gabriel Resources and the Romanian state, is developing the mining project at Rosia Montana, in the western Romanian Apuseni Mountains, with projected costs reaching more than $1 billion, through which the company expects to extract 626,000 ounces of gold per year for five years since the launch of the mine. An ounce of gold weighs 31.1 grams.
Gabriel Resources owns 80.46% of RMGC, while the Romanian state (19.31%) and other shareholders (0.23%) control the rest.
Romanian environmental NGOs have been protesting the project, which involves cyanide mining, since it was put on the table in the 1990s and have proposed to promote tourism and agriculture in the otherwise poor area.
On August 2, Prime Minister Emil Boc said on public TV that the Government is waiting for expert opinions concerning the impact of the Rosia Montana gold mining project on the environment before making a decision regarding the investment. He added that he is not a “fan” of the project and that the current contract should be renegotiated, as it is not the most advantageous for Romania.