Posted on 09 September
2011 Bucharest, Romania: Proposed changes
to Romania’s Mining Law to be voted soon
by the Romanian Parliament
would threaten not only sustainability of
the region, but would also allow private
interests to overtake state interest, according
to WWF.
Under the new provisions,
private investors who obtain a license for
exploitation would also gain the right to
expropriate the concerned properties in
the name of the Romanian state. According
to the current Romanian legislation, the
holder of a licence does not have this right,
only the Romanian state can expropriate
property. The proposed provision would clear
the way for abuse by private companies which
happen to hold operating licences in Romania.
“If this is adopted,
it would meant that private interests would
overtake vital functions of the state and
private companies would be able to expropriate
people against their will”, said Magor Csibi,
Programme Manager of the WWF Danube-Carpathian
Programme in Romania.
“We fear that this legislation
would directly benefit the operation at
Rosia Montana in Transylvania. We hope that
in the 21st century no EU member state can
afford to adopt legislation to suit specific
business interests.”
Canadian firm Rosia Montana Gold Corporation
plans to operate an open-cast gold mine
using cyanide at the historic gold mining
site of Rosia Montana. However, many environmentalists,
historians, architects and civic activists
are concerned not only about the impact
of the mine on the environment but also
whether it could damage ancient mining galleries
in the area that date back to Roman times.
The proposed amendment of the Mining Law
would also grant mining projects a special
status, which would allow for the destruction
of classified historical monuments without
the approval of the Ministry of Culture.
“While most of the democratic
world is heading rapidly towards radical
transparency where citizens are informed
not only about the benefits of resource
exploitation, but also about its price,
this law would push us back a couple of
hundreds of years to an age when laws were
set by private economic interests”, Csibi
said.
About Rosia Montana
There has been a strong local opposition
to the Rosia Montana gold mining project
ever since the plan of Canadian mining company
Gabriel Resources was announced in 2000.
The historic village of Rosia Montana would
be destroyed by building the largest open-cast
gold mine in Europe. At full production
the mine would dig 500,000 tons of rock
per week, emit 134 kg of cyanide into the
air per day and use 13-15 million kg of
cyanide per year during the16-year mine
life. Resistance to the project has since
spread across Romania and Europe.
By visiting www.rosiamontana.net
people can sign a petition which asks Romanian
MPs to vote against the proposed legislation
and to publicly express their opposition
to the project. 16,000 people have signed
the petition to date.
