Roșia Montană Project
| S.A. | |
| Industry | Mining |
| Founded | 1997 |
| Headquarters | Roșia Montană, Romania |
|
Key people
|
Dragoș Tănase general director |
| Website | www.rmgc.ro |
Roșia Montană Project is a gold and silver mining project initiated by Roșia Montană Gold Corporation in Roşia Montană, Romania. If approved, it would become Europe's largest open-pit gold mine and it would use the gold cyanidation mining technique. Currently, the project is on-hold awaiting a parliamentary decision.
The benefits of the state consist of 20% of the shares owned by the publicly owned company Minvest Deva and the 6% royalties of the gold and silver extracted not taking into consideration other valuable metals such as Wolfram, Uranium, Tellurium, Germanium, Titan, Molybdenum, Vanadium, Nickel, Chrome, Cobalt, Gallium, Bismuth, Arsenic or the Potassium-Feldspar. a Romanian company established in 1997, in Alba County, based in Roșia Montană, whose shareholders are the State-owned mining company Minvest Deva - with 19.31%, Gabriel Resources – with 80.46% (listed on the (GBU symbol)) and other minority shareholders – with 0.23%.
The project met a significant resistance from environmental groups and from neighbouring European countries, culminating in the nationwide protests by thousands of people across the country since September 2013.
A number of locals refuse to sell their properties to the Roșia Montană Gold Corporation and, in order for the project to commence, the state would need to exercise eminent domain.
Frank Timiș, a Romanian-born Australian, founded a company, Gabriel Resources, in the Channel Island of Jersey in 1995.
Timiș negotiated with the Romanian state and, in 1996, they signed a contract with state-owned Regia Autonomă a Cuprului Deva for the creation of a joint venture (Eurogold Resources) for the exploitation of auriferous residues from previous exploitations. Gabriel Resources was allowed to have 60% of the shares in the new company but, in a new protocol a year later, the Gabriel Resources stake was increased to 80%, while state's participation (through Minvest) was reduced to 18.8%, while being still allowed to exploit just around the existing mine. The company was renamed "Roșia Montană Gold Corporation" in 1999.
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Wikipedia