Good news: The Romanian parliament rejected the proposed Rosia Montana open-pit gold mine on Monday, after months of protests on the streets of Bucharest and around the world.
As we've blogged about before, this mine proposal epitomizes “dirty gold” for many reasons, including:
- Its location in the picturesque, Transylvanian Rosia Montana valley
- The staggering amount of cyanide it would use in what would be Europe's largest open-pit gold mine operation
- The fact that it would require an entire town to permanently abandon their homes to make way for the mine,
- And the strong local, national and global opposition it has stirred.
Though this “no” vote is good news, the struggle to block this proposed mine is not yet over. The Parliament will now draft new legislation to determine the project’s fate. Meanwhile, the mining company, Gabriel Resources, is rattling its sabers and threatening action against Romania.
Still, the rejection of this huge proposed mine reflects a public tired of open-pit, irresponsible gold mining operations and their impacts on waterways, health and livelihoods.
