Hungary is opposing mining activities at the Rosia Montana gold mine project in Romania. The project is to be operated by a Canadian gold mining company known as Gabriel Resources. Gabriel Resources owns 80% of the Rosia Montana Gold Corporation.
Romania had asked neighboring Hungary in February this year to make a non-binding recommendation on the project, as Romania is carrying out an environmental-impact assessment on the mine. The environment minister of Romania Laszlo Borbely said that he received last week Hungary's answer on the Rosia Montana gold mine project.
The Hungarians did not agree to the use of cyanide in the extraction process and they were against the development of the entire project. The reaction is understandable given that the rivers Tisza and Somes and the Danube were polluted in Hungary after a cyanide spill in Romanian in 2000. The opposition of the neighbouring nation will not stop Romania from carrying out their own assessment is what Borbely said.
Gabriel Resources wants to use cyanide to extract gold from an open cast mine in Rosia Montana, a pretty Carpathian mountain village. Under the green hills of Rosia Montana exist about 300 tonnes of gold in the largest deposit in the nation.
The soaring prices of gold have made it an attractive proposition to mine the deposit however there has been criticism of the intended mining activities from all sources including environmentalists, archaeologists, historians and international organisations. There are efforts on to put it on the UNESCO listing to save the environment and the history associated with the region.