Gabriel Resources Ltd has been asked to lower its cyanide level in a tailing pond in the Rosia Montana gold-mine project by Environment Minister of Romania. Minister Laszlo Borbely said that the Canadian company owned which owned 80.69 % of the mine was at present under assessment for environmental approval.
The Romanian government has told the company to reduce the cyanide level to below its proposed five parts-per-million concentration. This is half of the European Union’s maximum allowed level. It has also asked the company to set aside about $160 million in environmental guarantees in the first years of development. The state owned Minvest S.A owns the remaining 19.31 % of the mine while Gabriel Resources owns the rest.
Talks on the matter would be completed in the next couple of weeks. Dragos Tanase, the head of Rosia Montana Gold Corp., said that the company was studying the ministry’s demands to look for a solution to lower the maximum proposed level.
Romanian President Traian Basecu said that the governments share of the gold from the mine will go to the Romanian Central Bank Reserves. This move would increase the reserves from 103 tonnes to 200 tonnes in a few years. He wished the mining operations at Rosia Montana to begin soon as it would bring jobs in the region.
The hills at Rosia Montana are expected to hold more than 300 tonnes of gold and 1,700 tonnes of silver. The mine will use cyanide to extract gold from an open cut mine. The project involves an investment of $ 1.7 billion for the company and has not been popular with environmentalists, archaeologists, historians and other international organisations.
Source: Gabriel Resources