Hungary completely rejects gold mining with cyanide – this is the decision of the government with regard to the planned mine opening in Verespatak. State Secretary for Environmental Affairs Dr. Zoltán Illés drew Romanian Minister of the Environment László Borbély's attention in writing to the fact that cyanide technology is unacceptable to Hungary, as is the potential danger posed by waste sludge ponds and the models with which the Romanian government has attempted to analyse the levels of pollution that could reach Hungary.

In view of the trans-border pollution risks it is Romania's obligation to request the opinion of neighbouring countries within the framework of the Espoo Convention, but under the terms of the treaty Romania is under no real obligation other than to take cognizance of its neighbours' standpoints on the issue.

Hungary received the over one-thousand-page long Romanian study on the opening of the gold mine at Verespatak in February. The government has come to its official standpoint after studying the aforementioned documentation.

The Canadian Rosia Montana Gold Corporation (RMGC) plans to mine a total of 300 tons of gold and 1600 tons of silver at the site. The planned strip mining would mean the disappearance of three entire mountains from the area around Verespatak, and the processing of the ore would leave behind approximately 275 million tons of poisonous cyanide compound-containing sludge in a new and a reopened reservoir. Experts are worried that in case of an accident the pollution would flow into the Aranyos river via the nearby streams, and from there reach the river Maros and subsequently the river Tisza.

The key decision-makers in the process are the Hungarian members of the Bucharest government. The Ministry of Culture headed by Kelemen Hunor has accepted RMGC's request to be exempt from the otherwise compulsory archaeological regulations. This means that the corporation planning on mining gold and silver at Verespatak lacks only the permission of the Ministry of the Environment for mining to begin. The Ministry of the Environment is also headed by a Hungarian, László Borbély, who has faith in the planned, closed-system extraction method.

The Hungarian government is not alone in opposing the gold mining. Romanian and International environmental groups also view the use of cyanides as being extremely risky.

As has been previously reported, in 2010 following the proposal by MEP János Áder, the European Parliament adopted the conclusions in which the body called on the Commission to initiate a total ban on cyanide mining technologies within the European Union. However, the Commission did not ban cyanide mining, citing current legislation and taking the standpoint that the technology in question has no viable alternative for the time being.

Many bring up the Tisza cyanide catastrophe of January 2000 in argument against the plan. During Hungary's most serious water pollution disaster to date, 100 thousand cubic metres of waste contaminated with cyanides and heavy metals gushed out of a sludge reservoir in Baia Mare into the river Lápos, and from there into the river Szamos and on into the Tisza, one of Hungary's main rivers. The concentration of poisonous chemicals was 180 times the maximum limit, killing every living thing in the river and taking two weeks to flow along the Hungarian stretch of the river, causing immeasurable damage. The tragedy is regarded as one of Europe's most serious ecological disasters ever. Romania blamed the Austrian-owned company Aurul, but according to Romanian investigations the accident was caused by unforeseeable circumstances.

RMGC plans to extract 626 thousand ounces of gold from Europe's largest mining site over the next five years. The Canadian-Romanian joint stock company expects to achieve revenues in excess of one billion US dollars. In their latest press release, the directors of the corporation announced that the mine is expected to open in 2014, and 215 million tons of ore would be processed over fifteen years with the use of 200 thousand tons of cyanides.

(Press Office of the Ministry of Rural Development)