Romania has scored a massive and unexpected win in an arbitration trial filed by Canada’s Gabriel Resources over a contentious multi-billion gold mine projec
The company had had sought up to US$6.7 billion damages from Romania in its claim filed at the World Bank’s International Center for Settlement of Investment Disputes in 2015 for losses related to the stalled project.
Following months of nationwide protests, the Romanian government, which owned 20% of the project, officially withdrew its support in 2014, leading to the lawsuit.
„The Romanian government salutes this decision and thanks everyone involved in defending the interests of the Romanian state,” Prime Minister Marcel Ciolacu said in a statement. Gabriel Resources has 20 days to appeal the ruling.
For weeks, however, Ciolacu’s government had predicted a negative ruling and a fine running to billions of euros that the country could ill afford. Ciolacu had floated the idea of a referendum on the gold mine project and there were even suggestions that the 2,000 year-old mine be removed from Unesco protection.
Gabriel Resources gained concession rights to the Rosia Montana area in 1999. But in one of the most contentious and bitter battles since the overthrow of communism, it fought a decades-long battle with civil rights and environmental groups who argued the project would destroy Roman mine galleries and villages, and could lead to an ecological disaster.
The project envisioned using cyanide and carving open four quarries which would have destroyed four mountain tops and wiped out three outlying villages. Gabriel said the project would bring investment to an economically deprived area and create new jobs.
It wasn’t just the potential physical destruction though that made it a poisonous case.
Philanthropist and business man Nicolae Ratiu called it a David and Goliath story of a company „founded by two shady and corrupt characters who over 20 plus years bought the support of dozens of Romanian politicians, paid off every political party and poured millions annually into the media.”
Opposing this behemoth was just two non-governmental organizations. But public opinion grew against the project.
It grew into „a national awakening, a significant cleansing of corruption, and, some would say, a genuine people-led revolution,” Mr.Ratiu said.
Rosia Montana’s remaining reserves were estimated at 314 tonnes of gold and 1,500 tons of silver.
In 2021 Unesco added the ancient Roman gold mining area of Rosia Montana in western Romania to its list of protected World Heritage Sites.
