Mining Watch: Revision of environmental documents for Certej gold mining project in central Romania "illegal"

Another cyanide-leeching mining proposal is facing opposition in Romania, amid ongoing protests against plans to create Europe's biggest open-cut operation in Rosia Montana.

This time it is about the planned mine at Certej, in the central county of Hunedoara, just 90 kilometres away from Rosia Montana.

For this project, Canadian firm Eldorado Gold Corporation, the majority shareholder, received the environmental approval, for which new documents were recently submitted.

The recent revision of the existing approval was however appealed by Mining Watch Romania, which brings together civil society and local communities, and which monitors mining activities in Romania. A recent report from Mining Watch underlines the lack of legal background for the recent revision of the environmental approval to Eldorado Gold Corporation. The original approval is also part of an ongoing trial in Bucharest, where the Environment Ministry itself, led by Minister Rovana Plumb, was among those who appealed it, saying it was illegal. The Ministry said the Regional Agency for Environmental Protection Hunedoara issued the approval without notifying the Ministry and the National Agency for Environmental Protection. “The recent revision, issued by the Regional Agency for Environmental Protection Hunedoara, was not required by changes in project, but rather was meant to bring additional legal documents to the file. This targets fixing an improper documentation, which should have never led to a valid environmental approval to begin with,”according to Mining Watch. The recent update in the environmental approval process mainly referred to the fact that the mining site is partially included in a nature site, Natura 2000 ROSPA 0132 Munții Metaliferi. Around 108 hectares of the mining site are part of the 26,600 hectares natural site, which, according to Mining Watch, was already known and included in the original paperworks to get the approval. What was lacking, however, was a study from the site owners on the impact of the mine on the larger natural site, something that should have been required to get the approval. The Certej site is estimated to bring a production of 32 tonnes of gold ore, with an average gold content of 2.1 grams per ton. The value of the planned investment in the mining site is of EUR 200 million. The site would cover over 400 hectares and would have a life span of 16 years. The project would involve creating a decanting pond of 63 hectares, according to NGOs opposing the project. More about the project,in Romanian, here. The Certej mine is a large open pit mine in the west of Romania in Hunedoara County, and in 1971 it was the site of the Certej dam failure, which resulted in 89 deaths. The mine is currently owned by Deva SA, a company 80 percent controlled by Eldorado Gold Corporation, with the rest of the shares owned by the Romanian state via Minvest Deva. The same state company Minvest Deva is the minority shareholder in the much opposed gold mining project at Rosia Montana, where another Canadian firm, Gabriel Resources, is the majority shareholder. This project is at a more advanced stage, now awaiting a final decision from the Romanian Parliament, which would allow or not the investors to pursue their plans to extract gold and silver from the central Romanian site. It was also the project which brought thousands of Romanians to the streets of Bucharest and other cities in one of the longest protests in the country. Started in the beginning of September, the movement has featured almost daily protests since. According to NGOs, the two Canadian companies behind these mining projects have something else in common, besides their country of incorporation: the support of Romanian businessman Vasile Frank Timiş, founder and former president of Gabriel Resources. Between 2000 and 2006, Timis was among the largest shareholders of European Goldfields, which was taken over by Eldorado Gold in 2011 for some USD 2.4 billion.