Prime Minister Marcel Ciolacu stated on Thursday, in a discussion with journalists at the Victoria Palace, that he wants to organize a referendum for Roșia Montană, to see if the Romanians agree with gold mining. The statement comes in the context of the expected pronouncement of the decision by the international arbitration court on compensations or the possibility of gold exploitation on Friday, March 8.
“I would say to organize a referendum for Roșia Montană. Let’s see if the Romanians agree to start gold mining”, declared Ciolacu.
A decision in the case of Roșia Montană is expected on Friday, and depending on this the negotiation strategy will be formulated, announced the Minister of Finance, Marcel Boloș, who explained that “there is also the option not to pay anything, but to carry out the exploitation”.
“We were informed that during the day of Friday the decision will be pronounced by the international arbitration court. We are waiting to see what this decision will be and then we will formulate our negotiation strategy and depending on what the coordinates of this negotiation strategy will be, we will go through the necessary stages to reach a consensus with the beneficiaries of that decision”, said Minister Boloș. Asked if an extraordinary appeal was still possible, the finance minister said yes, but that “it’s moving quite quickly”. “It’s possible, but it’s happening pretty quickly. Such are the customs of international arbitration courts and the prospect of changing the decision that will be pronounced on Friday, following the discussions with the lawyers, is quite small”, said Boloș.
In June 2017, the Canadian company Gabriel Resources, the majority shareholder Roșia Montană Gold Corporation, summoned Romania to court at a World Bank Tribunal, where it claimed losses of billions of dollars because the Government in Bucharest decided not to approve the exploitation of the gold mine Rosia Montana.
The total updated value of the compensation requested by the companies Gabriel Resources Ltd. and Gabriel Resources (Jersey) in the international arbitration case opened against Romania, related to the “Roşia Montană gold mining project”, amounts to approximately USD 6.7 billion.
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