In Romania, a cyanide gold mine does not need any permit to exploit ore. Tacit approval of the Environment authorities is enough those days; and is as official and good and valid as any permit. The bigger the mine the more tacit approval it gets. Especially at Rosia: you just start exploiting for the social well-being. And if the Hungarian Environment Minister or EU authorities wants to visit, just explain "there is no time".

Cyanide accidents have tacit approvals from the Romanian government - this is official now. Think of while watching "New El Dorado".

Press release follows.

Rosia Montana: Tacit Approval

Rosia Montana/Romania, 1 February 2006 - The Alba-Iulia Tribunal admitted an appeal formulated by Emilia Timis, Chief Commissioner of Alba-Iulia's Environmental Guard, claiming that there exists a tacit environmental permit for mining Rosia Montana's Carnic Massif. According to Mrs. Timis, the responsibility for the tacit approval dating from 2003 lies with Alba-Iulia's Environmental Protection Agency.

Minvest Deva S.A. is a state-owned company and partner of Gabriel Resources in the joint venture known as Rosia Montana Gold Corporation (RMGC). In 2000, the exploitation license for Rosia Montana was transferred from Minvest to RMGC. Until February 2005, Minvest exploited the Carnic Massif without an environmental permit. According to Romania's environmental law, this constituted a criminal act. Carnic houses protected natural and cultural monuments of national interest.

At the time when the Carnic Massif was illegally exploited, Alburnus Maior submitted evidence to Alba-Iulia's Environmental Guard and asked for an investigation and to take action against Minvest. This included the obligation from the part of Mrs. Timis to summon the competent Prosecutor's Office to institute proceedings against the Director of Minvest. Given her refusal to act, Alburnus Maior formulated criminal complaints against Mr. Valentin Rus, the Director of Minvest and Mrs. Emilia Timis.

In the court case against Mr. Valentin Rus, the court concluded that Mr. Rus' action did not constitute a social danger, but contributed to the social well-being. During the hearings, the judge upheld that: "environmental law is not normative, environmental law remains juridical literature, to a certain extent moral, there are no such things as obligations in environmental law".

The court case against Emilia Timis went on a parallel scale. In the first instance, she was spoken guilty for not having summoned the competent Prosecutor's Office to institute proceedings against the Director of Minvest. The Court concluded that Mrs. Timis, in her role as the Chief Commissioner of the Environmental Guard, had the obligation to summon the Prosecutor's office, precisely because she had sufficient evidence proving that the infraction was indeed taking place. If the sentence had been upheld, criminal proceedings would have started against Mrs. Timis and she would have been suspended from office.

Consequently, Mrs. Timis formulated an appeal, claiming that there was no reason for her to summon to the Prosecutor's office because Minvest's exploitation of the Carnic Massif was based on a tacit environmental permit. Mrs. Timis's appeal was accepted by Alba-Iulia's Tribunal. The sentence is irrevocable.

"Talk is that Gabriel's environmental impact assessment procedure is putting a lot of pressure on our minister for the environment. Hot news is that apparently you can approve a mine tacitly. We thought of releasing this news to release our minister from all the stress of assessing public consultations, expert committees, European standards and those negotiations with Hungary," comments Eugen David, President of Alburnus Maior.

Alburnus Maior considers the sentence to be in violation of applicable laws and intends to formulate a complaint to European Court of Human Rights.
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For more information contact Alburnus Maior via +40 740 342104 or albu...@ngo.ro

http://www.rosiamontana.org