[Falkor-info] Gold mining in Romania

[info@falkor.org]

Dear subscriber,

In this message:

1. A request from the Rosia Montana campaigners in Romania to register your
NGO as interested party in the process to evaluate the Environmental Impact
of RMGC's Rosia Montana project;

2. Example letter;

3. The article 'Gold mining in Rumania: Getting to the bottom of the story'
by Justin Hyatt, taken from ROOTS (magazine from Aseed Europe)
October/November 2003


Falkor I.C.Y.


-------------------


1. Join the Rosia Montana campaign in Romania


(from www.rosiamontana.org:)

Gold has been mined at Rosia Montana, in the Apuseni mountains of
West-Central Romania, since pre-historic times. The area's riches attracted
several foreign powers including the Romans. These powers carried off the
precious metals to Rome, Vienna, Budapest, Berlin but left behind what has
become an historical and archaeological treasure of world class.
The seams of precious metals have long been worked out but gold and silver
are still dispersed in microscopic quantities throughout the geology of the
area.

The project proposal is that by blasting and pulverising the landscape, the
invisible gold and silver could be exposed to hazardous cyanide compounds
that would separate them from the rock.The scenery would be devastated,
hills transformed into massive craters in a toxic, sterile desert.

This is a populated area. The illegal process of forced resettlement has
already begun. Will these unique historical and archaeological remains be
obliterated and people forced to leave their homes?


(the request letter:)

Your help is needed!

The consultation process for Rosia Montana has opened and we need many, many
NGOs to register as interested parties.

Under Romanian law each and every body has the right to be included as such
party. We would there fore like to encourage you ALL to register
- it doesn't cost you anything and is really important for the campaign. It
will show the Romanian authorities as well how much the project is monitored
more info at www.rosiamontana.org).

All you need to do is to send an official fax, email or letter to:

Dimitrie Clepan
Sef Agentia de Protectie a Mediului
Strada Lalelelor Nr.7B
Alba
Tel/Fax: +40-0258 813248/813290
E-mail apm_alba@hotmail.com

Your letter should be an officially sounding and looking one and you just
need to say that you herewith would like to register as an interested Party
in the process to evaluate the Environmental Impact of RMGC's Rosia Montana
project.

That's all, no need to say why or what so ever.
A sample letter you can see below, but it's better to write your own.

Please also try to encourage as many NGOs or individuals who have an
interest against dangerous mining project to register

Many thanks
The Rosia Montana campaigners



2. Example letter


To: Dimitrie Clepan
      Sef Agentia de Protectie a Mediului
      Strada Lalelelor Nr.7B
      Alba
      Romania
      Phone: +40-258-813 248
      Fax: +40-258-813290
      E-mail: apm_alba@hotmail.com

From:


place, date


Dear Dimitrie Clepan,

Our NGO wishes to register as an official interested party in the process to
evaluate the Environmental Impact of RMGC's Rosia Montana project.
We would like to receive an overview of the material available and the
timeline and process that will be followed.

Could you be so kind to confirm receipt of our registration?

We look forward to hearing from you.

Sincerely yours,


name



------------

3.

from ROOTS October/November 2003 :

Gold mining in Rumania:
Getting to the bottom of the story

It all started out as a harmless exercise in investigative journalism. From
our summer's gathering in Romania, where about 30 writers from around
Eastern Europe met to produce our magazine, called Plotki, nine of us broke
off to join the interest group of our preference. Our destination was Rosia
Montana, potential site of Europe's largest open cast gold mine.
We were pretty surethat we didn't like Montana Gold Corporation", the
Canadian-backed company (Gabriel Resources) that has blue-prints to make
four extremely large pits, in which they plan to dig for gold in the next
ten to fifteen years, in a process which will knock the town of Rosia
Montana off the map and turn the entire area into a replica of the moon's
crater system in the process.

The employees at the company's headquarters in Alba Iulia, were determined
to sway our opinion on the matter. Touting their scientific expertise on the
issue, they did their best to present their project as a resounding triumph
for the Rumanian economy, which will dramatically boost local development
and even clean up the area, which has already suffered environmental damage
due to past mining and is just down the road from Zlatna, an extremely
polluted industrial town.

Already familiar with the gold mine tragedy of Baia Mare, we were concerned
about the use of cyanide. If anything goes wrong here, the results could be
far worse than in 2000, when cyanide polluted the Tisza/Tisa river and
created trans-national havoc. A failure in the dam here, which would protect
a tailing pond ten times the size of the one in Baia Mare, would not only
entail Romania once more exporting pollution through its rivers, but it
would wipe out the whole area, including the nearby city of Abrud.
We were assured that the use of the latest technology available would render
such a disaster scenario impossible, so we were told, that would be
impossible. All of our other questions also had a handy solution, and by the
time we staggered out of there, the thought "I've just been brainwashed"
flooded through my mind.

We next visited Rosia Montana itself, met the opposition to the project as
well as the townsfolk. The village is already being hit hard by the
corporation. They are actively buying up the houses and depopulating the
village. Many services have already stopped, such as that of the dentist and
the doctor. Although food can still be bought, funerals and the school will
likely be the next things to stop working. One shop-keeper was too shy to
share her opinions with us as just that moment another woman, who was known
to be supportive of the project, was in the store.
Thus we could sense that the town was quite divided on the issue. Of the
people who had stayed, was it because they opposed the destruction of their
community, tooth and nail, or because they were hoping to bargain for more
cash from the Gold corporation? "About half and half" according to Eugen
David, a Rosia Montana resident and president of Alburnus Maior, the
organization that is fighting against the Gold corporation. The mayor and
most of the town hall representatives have sided with the corporation, which
is not hugely surprising, given the fact that they also have jobs linked
with the corporation.

It all bore the hint of a classic case of corruption and buying out the
right people. The company, of course, is very careful not to allow for any
direct links; there are no cases of homeowners being pressured into giving
up their homes. A regional newspaper has become virtually a mouthpiece for
the company's interests. For a while, they would issue a free supplement to
the Rosia Montana community on Thursdays, highlighting all of the benefits
of a Gold mine. At the end of our investigative days the analytical days
began and we had a hard time knowing what to believe anymore. Most of us
still clung to the notion that such a project could have damaging
consequences, to the local area possibly and to the town of Rosia Montana
quite obviously. We could see for ourselves the problems mounting there.
What struck us the most powerfully perhaps, was the sensation that what is
taking place is both a very important issue but also very complicated -
there are many different opinions and many different interests. We had
difficulties to define our own standpoint very clearly. What if the
corporation really does consist of a bunch of guys who just want to make an
honest buck and in the meantime bring necessary development to the region
and provide a host of jobs?

Politically, environmentally, socially and emotionally, it is a very charged
issue. Who can one believe? Who has the most accurate information? Hard
enough dealing with these issues as a professed environmentalist, what about
your average citizen? Just a matter of what newspaper first reaches his or
her hands? There were many more unanswered questions, many things we still
wanted to find out. Reflecting on the issues at a basic philosophical level,
and consulting my own set of principles, for me the choice was clear. But
getting there involved soul-searching and hard work.

Rosia Montana Gold Corporation is running out of time. They still don't have
the license to dig and their investors are getting impatient. They never
realized that it would take as much propaganda and media work as it is
taking. When Romania's prime minister, Adrian Nastase, made a casual comment
indicating his nega- tive opinion towards the project, this hurt the
company. They are now preparing a major media campaign. Meanwhile
international organizations like Greenpeace, Bankwatch have joined the
campaign against the pro- posed mine.
For more information, look at Alburnus Maior's website:
http://www.rosiamontana.org

Justin Hyatt


http://www.aseed.net/roots/rootsarchive.htm