BUCHAREST (Reuters) - The Romanian government said on Friday it won an arbitrage trial filed by Canada's Gabriel Resources which wanted compensation after its plan to build Europe's largest open cast gold mine in the western Romanian town of Rosia Montana failed.
Gabriel Resources had sought at least $4.4 billion in damages from Romania when it filed its claim at the World Bank's International Centre for Settlement of Investment Disputes in 2015 for losses related to its stalled project.
The Romanian government, which had a 20% stake in the project, officially withdrew its support for the mine in 2014 after months of country-wide street protests against it.
"The Romanian government salutes this decision and thanks everyone involved in defending the interests of the Romanian state," the cabinet of Socialist Prime Minister Marcel Ciolacu said in a statement. The government had initially expected a negative ruling.
Gabriel Resources gained concession rights to the Rosia Montana area in 1999 and fought a decades-long battle with civil rights and environmental groups which argued the project would destroy ancient Roman mine galleries and villages, and could lead to an ecological disaster.
The project envisioned using cyanides and carving open four quarries which would have destroyed four mountain tops and wiped out three outlying villages of 16 that make up the Rosia Montana municipality.
Rosia Montana's remaining reserves were estimated at 314 tonnes of gold and 1,500 tonnes of silver.
Prior to Friday's ruling, Ciolacu wondered whether Romania should revive plans to extract the gold reserves from the area. However, in 2021 UNESCO added the ancient Roman gold mining area of Rosia Montana in western Romania to its list of protected World Heritage Sites.
(Reporting by Luiza Ilie in Bucharest; Editing by Matthew Lewis)
Romania wins legal battle against a Canadian miner over failed plans to open a gold mine
BUCHAREST, Romania (AP) — The Romanian government has won a years long legal dispute with a Canadian mining company seeking damages over failed plans to open a gold and silver mine in the Eastern European country.
Gabriel Resources was seeking $4.4 billion (4 billion euros) in damages from the Romanian state, which owned a 20% stake in the mining project in Rosia Montana, a mountainous western region that contains some of Europe’s largest gold deposits. The Romanian government withdrew its support for the project in 2014.
The government said that the ruling late Friday by the Washington-based International Centre for Settlement of Investment Disputes ordered Gabriel Resources to reimburse its legal costs for the arbitration case the Canadian miner launched in 2015.
Romania’s Prime Minister Marcel Ciolacu said it would have been unfair for Romanian citizens to be burdened with high costs a loss would have incurred. “I thank the team of lawyers who represented Romania with professionalism,” he said after the ruling.
The decision came 25 years after Gabriel Resources gained concession rights for the mining project that planned to extract gold and silver over a 16-year period. It would have involved razing four mountain tops, displacing hundreds of families and leaving behind a waste lake containing cyanide, a toxic chemical used in the process of gold extraction.
The project drew strong opposition from environmental and civic activists who helped organize protests that drew tens of thousands of people to Romania’s streets in 2013. Gabriel Resources said the project would have provided jobs in an area where employment opportunities are scarce.
Rosia Montana is also home to ancient Roman mining galleries, which were added to UNESCO’s World Heritage list in 2021.
The Associated Press
BUCHAREST, Romania (AP) — The Romanian government has won a years long legal dispute with a Canadian mining company seeking damages over failed plans to open a gold and silver mine in the Eastern European country.
Gabriel Resources was seeking $4.4 billion (4 billion euros) in damages from the Romanian state, which owned a 20% stake in the mining project in Rosia Montana, a mountainous western region that contains some of Europe’s largest gold deposits. The Romanian government withdrew its support for the project in 2014.
The government said that the ruling late Friday by the Washington-based International Centre for Settlement of Investment Disputes ordered Gabriel Resources to reimburse its legal costs for the arbitration case the Canadian miner launched in 2015.
Romania’s Prime Minister Marcel Ciolacu said it would have been unfair for Romanian citizens to be burdened with high costs a loss would have incurred. “I thank the team of lawyers who represented Romania with professionalism,” he said after the ruling.
The decision came 25 years after Gabriel Resources gained concession rights for the mining project that planned to extract gold and silver over a 16-year period. It would have involved razing four mountain tops, displacing hundreds of families and leaving behind a waste lake containing cyanide, a toxic chemical used in the process of gold extraction.
The project drew strong opposition from environmental and civic activists who helped organize protests that drew tens of thousands of people to Romania’s streets in 2013. Gabriel Resources said the project would have provided jobs in an area where employment opportunities are scarce.
Rosia Montana is also home to ancient Roman mining galleries, which were added to UNESCO’s World Heritage list in 2021.
The Associated Press
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