Rosia Montana
A Destructive Romanian Gold Mining Project

photo by Alburnus Maior Roman mausoleum in Rosia Montana

Dear Active Bankwatcher,

We need your help one last time this year to put a stop to a proposed gold mine that would destroy a whole community and threaten the surrounding environment. Earlier this year, we scored a great victory when the World Bank decided not to fund this mine, but Canadian-based Gabriel Resources is pushing ahead with its plans.

The mine would be Europe’s largest open cast gold mine. It would destroy Roman ruins more than 2,000 years old, which led the International Council on Monuments and Sites to make a resolution condemning the planned destruction of monuments.

The mining company also plans to use cyanide leaching, which creates large quantities of waste and sludge laced with heavy metals and cyanide. The sludge is to be stored in a toxic lake enclosed with a 180-meter high dam. A similar type of dam collapsed in Baia Mare, Romania, two years ago, killing most of the life in rivers for 400 kilometers downstream.

Promoters say the mine will create 300 new jobs, but these would last only 17 years while at the same time the mine would destroy the livelihood of 740 subsistence farmers forever. Due to various tax breaks and other preferential treatment the mine would provide little revenue to Romania, but burden it with the risk of accident and a decades-long toxic heritage.

More information on Rosia Montana:
http://www.rosiamontana.org (site maintained by Bankwatch and Romanian NGOs)

The CEE Bankwatch Network would like to thank you for your participation, help and enthusiasm during the previous year. We wish you all the best in the coming year. We would like to keep you informed in the next year as well, and for this reason we would welcome any comments on our Active Bankwatchers service. Please send your e-mails to: activebankwatchers@bankwatch.org

Please help us by sending a letter to the Romanian Prime Minister to stop this destructive project.

Your Excellency,

I am writing to you to express my concerns about the planned gold mine in Rosia Montana. Although some people say that the mine will bring money and jobs to Romania, the risks are not worth the benefits. Just think of the terrible catastrophe that occurred in Baia Mare in 2000. Can Romania afford another catastrophe for the sake of a mere 300 jobs? The Rosia Montana mine - and the jobs -- will be around for only 17 years. But Romania will continue pay for the pollution for many decades.

Independent sources have analysed the mine and found that it will pose a level of high environmental risk and leave Romania with a toxic problem from cyanide tailings. Construction of the mine would involve the resettlement of inhabitants from two villages, among them elderly people and people who do not want to move. Forced resettlement for private interest violates Article 8 of the European Convention of Human Rights, and also is reminiscent of large-scale industrial projects from the communist era.

The area of the proposed mine also includes archaeological artifacts. I am concerned that Rosia Montana Gold Corporation received permission for an archaeologically significant area of 300 hectares, although the company only investigated 3-4 hectares. The Romanian National Archeological Commission neglected the call of more than 600 eminent scholars and archaeological institutions, which "summon the authorities of Romania to prevent the destruction of the archaeological site of Rosia Montana / Alburnus Maior, a unique historical monument of ancient Roman mining". The same Committee also disregarded a similar resolution of the International Council on Monuments and Sites.

Please, when considering approving this project, consider the toxic heritage that Romania will inherit and the cultural heritage it will lose.

Sincerely,