How big are Romania's gold reserves?

Romania’s gold reserves at the end of may ranked as 35th largest in the world with 103.7 tonnes. Romania currently ranks behind South Korea with 104.4 tonnes and after Poland with 102.9 tonnes. Gold represents 9.1 percent of total Forex reserves, a share close to that of Russia (8.9 percent), South Africa (10.5 percent), Switzerland (11 percent) and UK (11.7 percent) according to capital.ro.

Worth mentioning is that Romania has the most gold out of all the former soviet republics that have joined the European Union. It’s slightly better positioned than Poland in this regard and way ahead of Bulgaria, Slovakia, Czech republic and Hungary.

Bulgaria’s gold reserves are half as big as Romania’s, and Slovakia owns only a third of the quantity currently stored by the Central Bank.

The International Monetary Fund regularly maintains statistics of national assets as reported by various countries. These data are used by the World Gold Council to periodically rank and report the gold holdings of countries and official organizations. The gold listed for each of the countries in the table may not be physically stored in the country listed, as central banks generally have not allowed independent audits of their reserves.

Romania has a gold quadrilateral bearing around 700 tonnes of exploitable resources, said Varujan Vosganian, former economy minister, in October 2013. Vosganian claimed then that the deposits are located in the Muntii Metaliferi (ore mountains), in Northeastern Romania.

He said there are 300 tonnes of gold in Rosia Montana, where Rosia Montana Gold Corporation (RMGC), controlled by Canada’s Gabriel Resources. There are around 200 tonnes in Rovina and 80 tonnes in Carpathian Gold. The deposit in Certej – where Canada’s Eldorado Gold plans to start mining activities – bears 120 tonnes of gold.