Roșia Montană is a small village in the Apuseni Mountains of western Transylvania, Romania.

WHAT is going on?

For fifteen years, Rosia Montana Gold Corporation, in which Canadian mining group Gabriel Resources is the majority stakeholder, has been preparing to start digging for the 300 tones of gold and 1500 tones of silver estimated to be in the area. This is supposed to become Europe’s biggest gold mine and is expected to bring a profit of $7.5 billion according to its investors

As envisaged by the company, the mining would involve digging out the valley in which the Rosia Montana village lies and destroying four nearby mountains. The new mine craters will be large enough to be visible from space!!!

A gigantic cyanide pool, where gold would be separated from ore, would be built over a nearby village.The dam will be 188 meters (617 feet) high and nearly 600 meters (1970 feet) long.

Environmentalists and civic-rights groups are concerned about the use of cyanide in the extraction process. As an example of the risk depositing such great amouns of cyanide, it is enough to remember the worst environmental catastrophy in Europe since the Chernobyl Disaster, the spill of cyanide from Baia Mare in 2000, when 100,000 cubic metres of cyanide-contaminated water spilled into Somes river, reaching through Tisa and Danube rivers, to Hungary and Serbia, killing virtually all living things and contaminating the drinking supplies of over 2.5 million Hungarians.

As the list can continue, we will mention here the Hungarian environmental disaster from 2010. The disastrous chemical spilling accident has been declared Hungary’s largest and most dangerous environmental catastrophe, exceeding by far the 130000 cubic meters of cyanide-tainted water that spilled in 2000 in Baia Mare, Romania. Ten years later, traces of cyanide are still found in the area.

There is a strong believe this will destroy not only the environment, but also the rich cultural heritage of the area. The remains of the Roman mining town include ancient industrial facilities, temples, baths, houses and tunnels. The latter have been described by UNESCO as "a unique archaeological complex of Roman mine galleries”. Most of these remains would be destroyed by the project. Opponents also have claimed that the mine would destroy 900 houses, 9 churches and 10 cemeteries. The Romanian Academy, the Romanian Orthodox Church, the Romanian Catholic Church and the Romanian Unitarian Church have all signalled their opposition to the project. Large Non-Governamental Organizations such as GreenPeace and political organisations such as the European Federation of Green Parties are also opposed.

You can see the example of the village Geamana, Romania on the Internet! We don't want another place like this, anywhere on earth!

But crucial in making the opposition so strong have been the tactics of the Gold Corporation, who are believed to have bought off corrupt politicians and the media.

Mr. Victor Ponta, the Romanian Prime Minister, seems to have some difficulties in deciding if he is supporting the project or not. Mr Ponta opposed the project before taking the power last year. He said he approved the draft law because he wants the parliament to debate it. Confusingly, Mr Ponta, who is also an MP, also said that he will vote against the project in Parliament, where a debate and a vote on this is expected to take place in the next two weeks.

Mr. Traian Basescu, the President of Romania, who supported the Rosia Montana project in the past, has now decided to take a step back: He said that if the debate in parliament splits society, he wouldn’t promulgate the law until a referendum on the controversial project takes place.

ECONOMICAL ANALYSIS

According to the agreement between the Romanian state and Gold Corporation, published together with the draft law mentioned at the start of this article, our government expects RMGC to create 2,300 jobs during the mine construction period (2014-2016, as envisaged by the agreement) and 900 during the exploitation period (seventeen years starting from 2016). The same document estimates direct financial benefits for the Romanian budget at 2.3 billion USD.

These are, of course, wishful estimates. Even so, for a sense of measure: the profit for Romania roughly equals the amount of money spent by mayors of Bucharest during twelve years just for flowers in the city and the number of jobs is just three times more than the number of jobs created only last month by a German automotive company in the city of Baia Mare (estimates based on numbers offered by urban planning activist Nicusor Dan in his blog).

How about the costs of maintaining the gigantic pool of cyanide for practically …EVER!!! …..for all the generations and centuries to come?! How you evaluate those costs, considering here a perfect case scenario, with no further spilling accidents!

AS A RESULT

On Sept 1, a day of mobilisation was called for and in over twenty cities in Romania and many other capitals around the world, people have gathered to protest a law which they took as a slap in the face from their own government.

The Revolution Begins with Rosia Montana has been the slogan of these protests, gathering thousands in some locations and set to continue over the next days in some places. Massive social media support has accompanied the street actions, while many of the major newspapers and TV stations have kept quiet about the protests or counted participation in hundreds.

That’s why we are standing here today! The Goal is even greater, because once we definitely STOP Rosia Montana Project, it’s succes, which already generated a debate in the EU Parliament, will echo all over the world, and that’s because you decided to stand up here, today to STOP Rosia Montana Project!