Romania Says UNESCO Designation Won’t Affect Gold Mine

Romania insists that UNESCO’s recognition of an ancient gold mine in Transylvania as a World Heritage Site will not affect a Canadian company’s open-pit mining project, defending the measure as a boon to local communities that suffered as the controversial project stalled — and not part of some scheme to appropriate the company’s assets. 

In a reply brief made public on Tuesday in the International Centre for the Settlement of Investment Disputes, Romania said the Roșia Montană area has “been in socio-economic limbo” for 23 years waiting for the benefits of economic development that the multibillion-dollar Gabriel Resources Ltd mining project promised to bring and that the government can no longer ignore the needs of its local population and let the area “further languish.” 

As years passed and Gabriel failed to secure its permits, “the lack of economic development … has undermined the village’s social fabric, including as a result of depopulation due to [Gabriel Resources’] purchase of properties to make way for the project,” the Eastern European nation said. 

The United Nations Educational Scientific and Cultural Organization added the Roșia Montană Mining Landscape to its World Heritage List in 2021 as one of the oldest documented mining sites in Europe, tracing back to the Roman Empire. 

In the December brief published by ICSID on Tuesday, Romania cast the UNESCO designation as a “positive development” for the Roșia Montană area. 

“It will provide employment opportunities and funding for the preservation of the unique cultural heritage in the area, until such time as [Gabriel] obtains the necessary permits and the social license,” the nation said. 

Last year, Gabriel told the ICSID that Romania’s decision to resume UNESCO listing proceedings contradicted its earlier position that it didn’t intend to block the development of its Rosia Montană gold and silver project. The case had been paused after Romania asked that UNESCO defer consideration of the application, but it did not pull the application outright. 

In response, Romania said there’s nothing about the UNESCO designation that would compel the government to interfere with the company’s mining rights under international or Romanian law, adding that Gabriel may still submit plans for the project. The Ministry of Culture’s endorsement of the open-pit mine still stands, according to the reply, and if Gabriel “can meet the project’s requirements under Romanian law and if it can secure the social license, the project can be implemented.” 

Romania said it has not taken any actions yet as a result of the area’s new UNESCO status and that the company “wrongly speculates” that the government will breach its bilateral investment treaties in the future. The country also spurned Gabriel’s “conspiracy theory that the UNESCO listing is the last step in Romania’s coordinated effort to expropriate their investments.” 

Gabriel Resources is owned by TXS Venture Exchange and has been focused on developing the Transylvanian gold and silver mine since 1997. In 2013, the Romanian government introduced a proposed law that would greenlight the project without its required environmental and social permits, as well as allow the company to forcibly displace local communities. The government was compelled

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4/30/22, 2:58 PM Romania Says UNESCO Designation Won’t Affect Gold Mine – Law360 

to pull back, however, after tens of thousands of Romanians took to the streets of Bucharest and Cluj to protest the project. 

Gabriel filed a dispute with the ICSID in 2015, claiming that Romanian politics had contributed to the illegal taking of its investment over concerns that the mine would damage cultural sites. 

Representatives for Romania and Gabriel Resources did not immediately respond to requests for comment on Tuesday. 

Gabriel is represented by White & Case LLP. 

Romania is represented by the Swiss firm Lalive and Leaua & Asociatii. 

The case is Gabriel Resources Ltd. et al. v. Romania, case number ARB/15/31, before the International Center for Settlement of Investment Disputes.