Hundreds protest for Rosia Montana in Bucharest, against mining exploration

Over 100 people gathered in Victoriei Square on Friday evening after Romanian Prime Minister Mihai Tudose said that he would try to withdraw Rosia Montana’s candidacy to be included on UNESCO’s protected list.

Some 200 people also protested in Victoriei Square on Sunday evening, September 3, chanting slogans against the Government.

Last week, Prime Minister Mihai Tudose accused the former Dacian Ciolos Government for submitting the documents to declare Rosia Montana a protected area by UNESCO, which would prevent carrying out any further exploitation of the deposits in the area.

Tudose also said that he does not believe that the Romanian state will lose the lawsuit with Canadian group Gabriel Resources, which has requested USD 4.4 billion worth of damages from the Romanian state for having blocked the Rosia Montana mining project. The Romanian state blocked the gold mining project at Rosia Montana following massive street protests in 2013.

The Prime Minister’s statement came after Mihai Gotiu, a senator representing the Save Romania Union party warned that the Government was preparing to withdraw the Rosia Montana file from UNESCO. He argued the Executive was trying to make an arrangement in the Washington dispute to hide the truth about how Gabriel Resources spent hundreds of millions of dollars in Romania with politicians, experts, journalists and advertising and PR agencies who supported the mining project.

Source: romania-insider