Canadian company Gabriel Resources announced on July 8 that it filed an appeal against the decision of the Washington Arbitration Court (ICSID) by which Romania won the case in the Roșia Montană gold mining project, requesting its annulment, according to G4media.ro.

The Arbitral Tribunal of the World Bank's settlement centre ICSID rejected in March all the claims against Romania by Canada-registered Gabriel Resources, which accused the Romanian government of expropriating its investments in the Rosia Montana gold mining project and breaching two bilateral foreign investment agreements, with the UK and Canada.

In its request to annul the ICSID decision, Gabriel Resources claims "fatal flaws in the constitution of the ICSID tribunal, given that two of the arbitrators who delivered the majority decision, Prof. Pierre Tercier and Prof. Zachary Douglas, lacked the qualities of independence and impartiality which the ICSID Convention imposes and they did not adequately disclose the relationships between them and the parties involved in the case, including with Romania's lawyer."

An annulment action is examined and decided by an "ad hoc committee" consisting of three members appointed by the President of the ICSID Governing Body. Gabriel Resources requested that the Chairman of the Board of Directors obtain a recommendation from the Secretary General of the Permanent Court of Arbitration regarding the selection of members of the ad hoc committee, given concerns about actual and potential conflicts of interest within ICSID.

In the application for annulment, Gabriel Resources also requested the suspension of the execution of the decision regarding the court costs of USD 10 million awarded to Romania.

Gabriel Resources sued Romania at the World Bank's ICSID back in 2015, citing USD 4.4 billion in losses incurred as a result of Romania's denial of the environmental documents necessary for the development of the project.

iulian@romania-insider.com

(Photo source: Inquam Photos / Ovidiu Dumitru Matiu)