Romania: Canadian company fails to grab its own eldorado

Court decision is final, say campaigners

Legal victory over the Eldorado Gold Certej gold mine proposal

Mining Watch Romania press release

28 September 2019

Mining Watch Network România is pleased to announce that the Eldorado
Gold Certej gold mine proposal is blocked. Today the Cluj Court of
Appeal upheld a verdict pronounced by the Cluj Court which cancelled the
urbanism zoning plan (PUZ) for the entire mine proposal. Today’s verdict
is final.

“Today’s ruling invalidates all acts based on the cancelled PUZ obtained
by Deva Gold from 2010 to present – this ranges from environmental to
construction permits. To ensure compliance our lawyers have today shared
the ruling with the authorities at the local, regional and national
level. Eldorado shareholders should count their losses and this
environmentally disastrous mine project is now blocked indefinitely,”
said Roxana Pencea Brădățan from Mining Watch România.

In recent years, the mining operator in Certej seemed unstoppable. One
by one, the parent company Eldorado Gold grabbed no less than seven
mining perimeters in the Golden Quadrilateral in the Apuseni Mountains
of Transylvania. Their intention has been to merge them into one huge
open-pit exploitation; using cyanide to separate the gold from the ore.
If their plan were to succeed, the exploitation and initial destruction
would be double in size than what has been proposed at Roşia Montană.

The PUZ for the Certej mining project was approved by the Certeju de Sus
Local Council, via decision No. HCL 11/2010. An urbanism zoning plan
(PUZ) is a set of local rules governing land use and the design of
industrial objectives. It is issued by the Local Council to the benefit
of an operator and in this case, to the benefit of a mine operator.

The court verdict noted that the urbanism zoning plan (PUZ) was issued
in violation of applicable environmental protection legislation. This
also means that all permits obtained by Deva Gold from 2010 to present
were obtained in violation of applicable European and/ or Romanian
legislation.

The Certej mine development is located in the commune of Certejul de
Sus/ Hunedoara county. It is owned by Deva Gold SA, a joint venture
between Eldorado Gold (80%) and the state-owned company Minvest Deva (~
20%). Eldorado Gold – ELD (TSX) /EGO (NYSE) – is a Canadian low-cost
gold company that plans to open the first cyanide-based open-pit gold
mine in Romania.The project is facing strong opposition in Romania and
beyond. The height of the dams for both tailings ponds would be at 169 m
and 70 m respectively, and are an additional cause of concern as they
would be located in the immediate vicinity of several densely populated
villages: Hondol, Bocşa Mică and Certej.

Note: Court File 130/117/2016

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Roxana Pencea
Mining Watch Romania
www.miningwatch.ro <http://www.miningwatch.ro>

Cluj Napoca, Romania
Mobil: +40 723024300