The gold mining project at Rosia Montana in Romania is 'very profitable' but will only start when it is clear who stands to benefit from the gains, said Romanian businessman Ovidiu Tender.

“Rosia Montana has created 20 years of constant arguments. We should search for the reality, not the stories. I know the initiator of the project, Frank Timis, who tried to re-start an economic activity that seemed dead, given the predicted price of gold. Back then, he was a nobody, and the big guys in the field wanted to take his goose that laid the golden eggs. The business was profitable. The problem is who benefits from it,” said Tender.

Gabriel Resources, the company that owns 80 percent of Rosia Monatana Gold Corporation, was founded in 1997 with the help of Romanian businessman Frank Timis, who later withdraw in 2003.

Tender, meanwhile, went searching for gold and oil in Africa.

The Rosia Montana gold mine project in Romania could be worth some USD 30 billion, given the current price of gold and silver, above the USD 7.5 billion value estimated in a 2007 study, said Jonathan Henry, executive director of Gabriel Resources, the majority owner of Rosia Montana, in an interview for Reuters. The price of gold per ounce was USD 900 in 2007, and now it is of some USD 1,700.

Rosia Montana holds Romania’s largest gold reserves, estimated at 300 tonnes of gold and 1,600 tonnes of silver. Gabriel Resources signed a concession agreement for the Rosia Montana project, but the project has not been started as NGOs opposed it and successive Romanian Governments are yet to issue environmental approval.

Jonathan Henry asked the new government in Romania to first discuss the project with the Rosia Montana Gold Corporation – the project company, and then go to public consultation on the mining project.

editor@romania-insider.com