Hungary demands Romania stop Canadian-led gold mine development

Hungary's parliament said Tuesday that the European Union should ensure that Romania halts a Canadian-led gold and silver mine project that Hungary regards as a serious environmental threat. "Hungary's biggest chance to stop the development is now," said Bela Turi-Kovacs, chairman of Hungary's environmental committee. Romania hopes to join the EU in 2007, and Turi-Kovacs said the environmental segment of the entry negotiations should not be closed until Romania pledges to stop the mine, 80 per cent owned by Gabriel Resources Ltd. of Toronto. The rest of the Rosia Mountain Gold Corp. is owned by a Romanian state-owned enterprise, Minvest S.A., although Gabriel (TSX:GBU) funds 100 per cent of the development costs. Hungary is worried that the mine at Rosia Montana, 190 kilometres east of its border, could cause a repeat of environmental catastrophes in 2000, when two Romanian mines spewed cyanide, lead, copper and zinc into waters feeding Hungarian rivers. In one of those incidents, cyanide-laced water leaked from a reservoir at an Australian-owned gold mine into the Tisza River, a tributary of the Danube, killing much of its aquatic life. The $400-million-US Rosia Montana open-pit mine would also use cyanide to extract gold from some 13 million tons of ore a year.