arch/ive/ief (2000 - 2005)

An unprecedented scale ecological disaster is undergoing in Romania:
a mega gold mine that will:
-wipe out five mountains flat to leave a hole 360 meters deep
-displace the human population from this area
-detonate 150 tons of dynamite daily
-leave behind a 700 ha artificial lake full with cyanide
water
-poison with cyanide about 1600 ha. , in open air
-leave behind 250 millions of tons of sterile.

Such an extensive exploitation (and disaster. remember when the
Danube was poisoned with cyanide by an Australian mining company,
also digging for gold?) is unprecedented in Europe. We do not know
of any such project in the history of the mankind: destroy five
mountains.

The Canadian company planning this disaster is "S.C. Gold Corporation
Rosia Montana". The company says to have the backing of the Mondial
Bank. It has for sure the backing of influential Romanian
politicians, many of them in the government.

The plan is to extract ALL the gold reserves from underneath five
mountains (that is, wiping them entirely), estimated by the company
at about 300 tons (the real quantity is probably more). The full
extraction is planned in about 10 years at a rate of 13 millions tons
of mineral per year (comparatively, classic exploitation is about 420
000 t/year). Hence with this new technology, the exploitation is
accelerated with a factor of 30. Imagine the seismic shock of
detonating the 150 tons of dynamite daily - this is the quantity
needed! Imagine 300 years of classical exploitation crammed in 10
years! The company wants to recover investment in 2.5 years!

The "benefits": 700 jobs in the area, 2% of the net benefices for the
Government (the gold will be sold on the international market, the
local population does not benefit it)

The exploitation has already started. The liquid used for foration is
unknown but cows from within all the region are all sick already.
Peoples hired by the company to do the mining are overworked 12 hours
daily - the law mandates maximum 6 hours per day for such activities.
Those peoples are getting sick within months. Peoples in age of 17-18
years have been detected with silicosis.

The law mandates an approval by the community for such a project -
this has been decided from Bucharest instead. The law also mandates
various approvals, including a "preservation of the natural
environment" one. Peoples are already threatened to force them to
leave their houses to keep a job. Many other required approvals are
missing, thus making the whole enterprise illegal.

Those who wish to contact the "Alburnus Maior" association can do
it at (you may need a traslator):
Fax (001) 40-58/78.31.57
Tel (001) 40-58/78.31.44
Email alburnus_major@yahoo.com

You can also contact
Closest Romanian embassy
Romanian government : fax (001) 40-1/315.53.89
Romanian prime minister: anastase@cdep.ro

Following is the full translation of the original interview from
which I
extracted those facts.

Formula As No. 514 SPECTATOR
http://www.formula-as.ro/514as/spectator.html

Money today, death tomorrow
Interview of Eugen Cornea, retired topographer, first vice-president
of the gold-mining workers "Alburnus Maior" from Rosia Montana by
ION LONGIN POPESCU of "Formula As"

"If you want it or not, it does not matter, the project will be
done !"

R : So, the ex-state secretary in the Ministry of the Environment,
Dumitrascu, the one that supported in 1999 the environmental
approval, is today the director of S.C. Gold Corporation Rosia
Montana; The PSD deputy Constantin Selagea is a member of the
board in the same company;
The prefect Ioan Rus, the one that made the juridical forms of the
"Alburnus Maior" association while being in opposition is today at
the opposite side, speaking like de-facto employee of M. Frank
Timis.
The city councilors of Rosia Montana, who opposed initially the
signature of the Global Urbanization Plan (PUG) are today the
employees of the same M. Timis, after having changed, in an
"impartially" way, as any Romanian would, their opinions, and
accepted an illegality.
To obtain a job, peoples are asked to give up their… houses, a
stupefying "house against job barter".
What other illegalities happened in Rosia Montana, M. Cornea ?

E : Some public lands have been transferred in the private's
city's administration (Mairie), 20 km2 being now considered as
"industrial area" – hence nobody can get now construction
authorization in the central, historic area, of the commune, in
that area everything will be demolished.
The PUG has been ordered by M. Timis at the Alba-Iulia city and
has been written down according to his wishes.
The PUG's adoption by the local council has been made illegally
because the law imposes a consultation of the local population
beforehand, for such matters.
M. Mihau David, who came here to pressure the signature of this
document, minister state secretary in the Ministry of the
Development and Prognosis, told the peoples : "If you want it or
not, it does not matter, the project will be done !" (this was the
public consultation recommended by the World Bank! - n.r.)
Finally, after seven (!) meetings of the local council, the PUG
has been imposed by the Bucarest employees.
Regia Minvest Deva, who humiliates itself before the same Lord
(Timis), threatens to close the mining exploitation Rosia Montana
if the peoples do not accept the foreign project, although it is
the only profitable exploitation (it produces 320 kg of gold per
year, because the Central Bank does not wants to buy more).
Moreover, it should close before of that other mining sites, like
Bradul, Gura Barza, etc.
Frank Timis pretends he paid the government dozens of millions of
dollars for the secret geologic documentation, in reality he paid
it 150 millions of "lei" !
All the Cornei valley will become a deadly lake and five mountains
will be wiped out from the surface of the Earth!

R : So, we do not sell our contry, we give it for free! What are
the estimated gold reserves and what will happen in the affected
area?
E : The project evaluates it at 300 tons but we believe there is a
bigger quantity.
The mineral reserve, for example, is more than 227 millions tons,
and to process this quantity you need a lake of 700 ha in surface.
All the Cornei valley will become a deadly lake, with 250 millions
tons of sterile around.
If presently, by clean methods, without cyanides, we exploit 420
000 tons by year, M. Timis wants to exploit 13 millions tons/year.
What would be extracted, in a classic exploitation, in 30 years,
he wants to excavate in an year!
So, the production of the next 300 years, a chance for the future
generatons, will be exploited in 10 years.
A criminal speed that will leave behind a desert.
To the attention of mountain lovers: the mountains Cetatea,
Carnicul, Carnicelul, Vaidoaia, Corna will disappear.
The mining will create a crater 360 meters deep; where are today
the houses from Rosia Montana, there will be a hole full of
residual waters, and all around sterile-made mountains on 1600 ha,
like a moon landscape nightmare: Valea Nanului, Citera, Budestii
Cornei, dealurile Sulei.
Also, 8 artificial lakes will disspear, those lakes were used up
to 1948 for the mining installations, from Taul Mare to Gura
Rosiei.
The mountain heights from Detunata, Piatra Corbului, Piatra
Despicata – deemed monuments of the nature will crumble down.
There will be massive detonations and explosions, with 150 tons of
dynamite per day.
Imagine the dispersion, the dust, the noise, what a seismic wave!
Who will be able to live in such an hell?
The churches and the patrimonial houses, that M. Timis pretends
will be conserved, as well as the antiquity's mining tunnels,
dating from the Daco-Romanian era (2000 years ago, n.t.) will
crumble down like in a seism.
Recovering the investment is due in 2.5 years. Who has ever seen a
20% benefit in the mining industry ?
Usually, such projects are becoming profitable after 10 years.
Because he knows that he will have problems when Romania will
align its laws with European Union ones. He will be able to leave
after three years, he will have made enough profit.

R : How has the Canadian company obtained the exploitation license
?
E : Illegaly. As mandated by the law 61/1998 for mining
activities, a company has to have: a realisability study, a
development study, an environmental impact study, bank warrants
deposits to repair damages to the environment before obtaining the
license.
None of these exists. The government offered the license to Regia
Minvest Deva at 10 june 1999.
At 9 October 2000, the license has been transferred to "Eurogold"
which is today "Gold Corporation", by sabotage of the state owned
company Rosia Montana.
Attention: the state owned company which produces gold presently
does not has anymore a license because the license has been
transferred to Frank Timis!
The state was sabotaging his own interest with the help of some of
his directors and ministers. A simulated auction took place, at
which have been accepted, by coulisses machinations, only
companies having a license, that is the company of Mr. Timis.

"After having worked a few months for the company, my neighbor is
older with 10 years"

R : I know that drillings made by the company have produced
already "collateral damages". What is all about?

E : we can already taste what will soon happen on a big scale.
Basically, peoples receive today money and the death tomorrow.
After having worked a few months for the company, my neighbor is
older with 10 years. He is all the time ill, does not eat, it is
in sad mood. We all know that.
Some childrens, 17-18 years old, after having worked at the drills
and in the galleries, 12 hours a day (not 6 hours, as the law
mandates) have been discovered as having silicosis.
Nobody knows the composition of the drilling liquid, which caused
many peoples from Rosia Montana to loose their taste and smell
senses.
My cows who go feed themselves on the Vaidoaia mountain, when the
drillings were made, were vomiting every night, after coming home.
The veterinary told me that in 30 years of practice, he newer saw
cows vomiting like this. The hell is here.
There's another thought: if we, the peoples in the demolition
area, we will receive some small money to move out, the ones
outside this perimeter will receive nothing.
They will curse us, while supporting the explosions, the dust, the
illnesses and the death, while us, we will be squeezed on a 200 ha
surface, from the 700 ha which we have now.
We will find ourselves hanging at a 900 m altitude, on a bare
stone hill, at the blowing of all winds, without water and where
we will be forever as strangers: Piatra Alba
Those in favor of the displacement should know that jobs are short
time but life is longer, especially when you are young.
The gold will be sold outside the country, the National Bank does
not buys it, does not needs it. At least for the moment.
Romania will obtain 2%, the tax on a few hundreds of wages (700 in
production phase, according to M. Timis) and 20% of the shares.
Then, why extract in a hurry all the gold from the inner of the
Earth ?
Why not extract slowly, with cleanness, without cyanide ? The gold
does not regenerate, once extracted it is gone !
The Romanian gold reserve, our national solvability will become a
dream, like the Moscow treasure. ION LONGIN POPESCU