Romanian government to allow 53-hectare deforestation for Canadian company’s gold mining operations

The Romanian government is preparing to approve the permanent removal of over 56 hectares of forest from the national forestry fund in the area of Simeria, Hunedoara county, of which more than 53 ha will be deforested in order to allow Deva Gold, 80 percent owned by Canadians at Eldorado Gold, to carry out its gold mining operations, according to profit.ro.

The project is titled “Exploitation of gold-silver ores in the Certej perimeter”, located in the same area as Rosia Montana. The forestry code allows the removal from the national forestry fund of areas necessary for mining operations, as long as they are compensated with other lands where woods are planted and with an anticipated payment of financial compensations.

Deva Gold paid a RON 6.5 million tax for the permanent removal of the lands from the national forestry fund, according to the government decision.

The deforestation will be compensated with forest land totalling 168.6 hectares, owned by Deva Gold, located in the Poganesti perimeter (Lugoj area), the Povergina (Faget area) and Secas perimeter (Timisoara area).

The exploitation licence for the Certej perimeter was issued in 1999, initially to state company Minvest, which in 2001 transferred it to Deva Gold, owned by Canadian company Eldorado Gold, who also operate locally through European Goldfields Deva SRL and own the concession for several mining perimeters in the Apuseni Mountains.

According to a feasibility study, Eldorado Gold estimates a gold and silver extraction worth over USD 3.1 billion over 17 years from the Certej project.

Eldorado Gold was founded in 1992 in Vancouver, and its largest shareholders are asset management groups Van Eck Associates Corporation, BlackRock Investment Management, Franklin Advisers, Vanguard Group and Wellington Management.