The minister told a news conference that, although the cyanide concentration level proposed by RMGC is two times lower than the limit accepted by European best practice guidelines, of 10 ppm, he asked RMGC representatives to further reduce it.
Last week, the minister said the Rosia Montana project must comply with European best practice guidelines regarding cyanide mining, but does not require any special authorization from the European Commission.
He went on to explain what “best practice” in cyanide mining entails, giving the example of Sweden, which he visited. “They have a closed system which reduces the cyanide concentration so much that, when residual waters flow into the reservoir, this substance cannot even be measured,” he said, adding that the company running the Rosia Montana investment has been asked to apply “a similar system.”
“I had two requests: that the cyanide concentration be reduced to a level where it is no longer pollutant and funds for ecological restoration, around $160 million, in the project’s first years. The investor agreed, in principle, to both requests,” Borbely said at that time.
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.