Despite the rejection of mining approval for what could be Europe’s largest gold mine, Gabriel Resources is still positive of Rosia Montana’s future.
Yesterday the mine was rejected by the Romanian Parliament’s commission tasked with revising its viability.
However, this hasn’t dissuaded the Canadian miner, who believes the mine still has a future.
“I’m confident that there’s a way forward,” Gabriel Resources CEO Jonathon Henry told Mineweb following the rejection.
“We just need to see it.”
Instead of seeing the parliamentary decision as a rejection of the mine, Gabriel believes it is a rejection of the current proposal legislation and framework.
Following the announcement, the miner put out a company statement, saying “the report of the special parliamentary commission has concluded a series of open debates,during which the public opinion had the chance to be informed with regards to the Rosia Montana Project.
“The Commission’s report is comprehensive and professional and a thorough and serious analysis of the project has been conducted, after many years of delay. We appreciate the conclusion of the commission which recommends the legislative framework to be completed with measures able to allow the implementation of mining projects of such scale.
“We hope that this legislative framework would permit the development of the mining industry in Romania and attract investors. We look forward to the swift adoption of such a legislative framework and hope this will be approved soon so that the Rosia Montana project development can be initiated in early 2014.”
Henry went on to state that despite protests over the mine and its perceived cyanide risk, it isn’t about cyanide.
“It’s about politics and political will. The cyanide question has been well answered through the technical analysis committee process that we’ve had with the Romanian government, so although we’ve seen people on the streets talking about cyanide, that’s not the issue here.”
One Australian Mining reader was in line with Henry, stating that the fear over the previous cyanide spill was overblown, and created concerns where they should not lie.
“For the record Cyanide has a very short shelf life and decays in 24 of 48 hours. It was not the problem in the spill – The problem was the ill informed Hungarian authorities who authorised and tipped truck load after truck load of Hypochlorite [Chlorine-the stuff used to kill bacteria in our drinking water and swimming pools] into the Danube river and that is what killed all the fish,” he stated.
“We’re very open to people engaging with the facts if they’re willing to listen,” Henry added.
“If you look at our closure plan, 10 year after we’ve left you wouldn’t know the mine had been there.”
Henry has also previously warned of legal action against the Romanian Government, in a similar vein to subsea and fellow Canadian miner Nautilus Resources, which sued the Papua New Guinean Government, however he declined to comment on potential legal manoeuvres when questioned.