Canadian company Gabriel Resources is preparing an international arbitration case against the Romanian government that would seek billions of dollars in damages, writes The Globe and Mail.

The company has been trying to get approval in the last 15 years to extract tonnes of gold and silver from Rosia Montana in Romania.

Gabriel Resources is making plans for the case, which probably would be heard in Vienna in the second half of the year, while reducing its activities in Romania’s Transylvania region to conserve cash. About 80 percent of the company’s Romanian subsidiary, Rosia Montana Gold Corporation (RMGC), have been suspended at three-quarters pay. The company said it may fire them in May “if there is no progress in the advancement of the project.”

The Romanian parliament’s chamber of deputies is scheduled to vote on a bill that would give special legal status to the mining project, allowing it to go ahead, on May 7.

But the company does not expect the vote to go in its favour, partly because public opposition to the mine and its cyanide-based extraction technology remains strong, reports The Globe and Mail.

Irina Popescu, irina.popescu@romania-insider.com