Rosia Montana Gold Corporation (RMGC) can sell in advance the production of gold and silver that will be drawn from the mining project in Romania, in order to finance the company's operations. The Romanian state would not receive dividends as long as Minvest Deva, a minority shareholder, will have debts to Gabriel Resources, according to the contract signed between Romania and the RMGC, that has been recently published by the Ministry of Economy. In 2009, Gabriel Resources lent Minvest EUR 26.55 million for its contribution to a share capital raise to EUR 144 million (RON 612 million). (the links on the Economy Ministry site below this article)

“The company will sell both semi-finished (concentrates) and finished products on the internal market and through exports, according to the regulations and applicable legal provisions. The company will be able to sell those products, in order to finance its operations,” according to RMGC's articles of association of 2011, which replace the company's statute of 2000.

The Economy Ministry, Minvest Deva's majority shareholder, has published several of RMGC's founding acts, with the amendments brought between 1997 and 2011. The ministry has not published the license contract, which is classified and rests with the National Mineral Resources Agency (ANRM).

Minvest Deva was awarded the license for the Rosia Montana deposits in western Romania in June 1999, through a Government Decision. Minvest transferred the license to RMGC in October 2000, based on its partnership with Gabriel Resources.

Romanian President Traian Basescu has recently said Romania should get more gold out of the project, as the state is a shareholder there, with 19.3 percent, through state company Minvest.

Works on the mine project, in which Gabriel Resources has invested almost 70 million Canadian dollars, might last up to two years and a half. If no unplanned delays occur, the Rosia Montana project might produce gold by the end of 2014.

This gold and silver mining project has been met with public disapproval and several NGOs in Romania have opposed it, saying it would harm the environment through the use if cyanide in the gold mining process.

Constitutive papers for Rosia Montana Gold Corporation

Company contract 1997

Additional papers RMCG 2001, 2002, 2003, 2010, 2010, 2010,  2011, 2011

Irina Popescu, irina.popescu@romania-insider.com

(photo source: Sxc.hu)