Gabriel Resources loses damage claim against Romania for failed gold mine project
BUCHAREST - The Romanian government said on Friday it won an arbitrage trial filed by Canada's Gabriel Resources, which wanted compensation after its plan to build Europe's largest open cast gold mine in the western Romanian town of Rosia Montana failed.
Gabriel Resources had sought at least $4.4-billion in damages from Romania when it filed its claim at the World Bank's International Centre for Settlement of Investment Disputes in 2015 for losses related to its stalled project.
The Romanian government, which had a 20% stake in the project, officially withdrew its support for the mine in 2014 after months of country-wide street protests against it.
"The Romanian government salutes this decision and thanks everyone involved in defending the interests of the Romanian state," the cabinet of Socialist Prime Minister Marcel Ciolacu said in a statement. The government had initially expected a negative ruling.
Gabriel Resources gained concession rights to the Rosia Montana area in 1999 and fought a decades-long battle with civil rights and environmental groups which argued the project would destroy ancient Roman mine galleries and villages, and could lead to an ecological disaster.
The project envisioned using cyanides and carving open four quarries which would have destroyed four mountain tops and wiped out three outlying villages of 16 that make up the Rosia Montana municipality.
Rosia Montana's remaining reserves were estimated at 314 t of gold and 1 500 t of silver.
Prior to Friday's ruling, Ciolacu wondered whether Romania should revive plans to extract the gold reserves from the area. However, in 2021 UNESCO added the ancient Roman gold mining area of Rosia Montana in western Romania to its list of protected World Heritage Sites.
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