Stop "Dirty Gold," the Rosia Montana Open-Pit Cyanide Mine in Transylvania

PBS airs documentary on Cyanide Mine in Transylvania... Rumania plans the destruction of churches, cemeteries, homes and displacing an entire village to make room for one-mile-wide, open-pit cyanide mine.

On Tuesday, the 21st of August at 9 PM EST, PBS Television will show a documentary film on a planned open pit cyanide gold mine at Verespatak in Transylvania, now called Rosia Montana after Rumanian annexation. In "Gold Futures," WIDE ANGLE profiles rural farmers and townspeople confronting a choice, as a Canadian company prepares to excavate a massive open-pit gold mine where their village still stands. Hungarian film-maker Tibor Kocsis is cinematographer, director and editor of Gold Futures, and has been following the story of Rosia Montana for more than five years.

"Gold Futures" is a David-and-Goliath story set in a scenic Romanian village in the heart of Transylvania. At stake: Europes largest deposit of gold ore - and a 2000-year-old village community. Now, as a Canadian company (RMGC) plans to excavate the largest open-pit gold mine in Europe, mineral wealth and badly-needed jobs compete with time- honored rural traditions and concerns about poisoning the environment.

RMGC's planned use of cyanide raises flags for some wary villagers who fear an environmental disaster like the one that occurred in 2000, when a ruptured dam at a nearby mine unleashed toxic cyanide sludge into the river system, contaminating the drinking water of millions of people and killing more than 1200 tons of fish downriver in Hungary.

In addition to the threat of pollution, the project will mean the displacement of the entire village and all its residents. Excavation of the new one-mile-wide mine can't begin until hundreds of houses and nearby shops, churches and even graveyards are demolished. [download the Press Release]

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Related Links

• "Save Rosia Montana" Video
• No Dirty Gold
• Salvati Rosia Montana- "People are more important than gold. Save Rosia Montana." In English, Hungarian, Romanian, and German
• RosiaMontana.org is a page maintained by volunteers supporting the activities of Alburnus Maior, a Romanian NGO headquartered in Rosia Montana, Romania
• See Gabriel Mining's rebuttal: www.truestory.ru
• Case Study on the Tisza cyanide disaster: The cyanide pollution of the rivers Szamos and Tisza was caused by AURUL, an Australian-Romanian joint venture that is situated in Romania’s Baia Mare (Nagybánya) region, close to Rosia Montana
• Ramsar Forum: Cyanide pollution of the rivers Szamos and Tisza

Other Links

• Controversy at the Babes-Bolyai State University
• "There are no Nationalities in Romania?" The American Hungarian Federation Co-Hosts Lecture by Bishop Arpad Szabo from Kolozsvar
• "Trianon: Tragedy, Dissolution, and Remedy." Frank Koszorus, Jr. and the AHF International Relations Committee release essay on treaty's 87th anniversary.
• News from Vojvodina [I], [II], [III]
• Slovakia and the Benes Decrees
• Hungarian Flags Flying Again in Slovakia
• Rumania's Basescu in the US
• AHF on Dual Citizenship for Hungarians
• The Csango Hungarians of Moldavia
• The Tragedy of the Treaty of Trianon

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Articles and Essays by AHF Members

• "NATO Enlargement" by Frank Koszorus Jr. March 29, 2004
  Remarks on the Occasion of the Enlargement of NATO, Corcoran Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C. [download]
• "Nato Enlargement And Minority Rights: Prerequisites To Security" by Frank Koszorus, Jr., April 2003
  A memorandum that was submitted to Robert A. Bradtke, Deputy Assistant Secretary for European and Eurasian Affairs, and Heather A. Conley, Deputy Assistant Secretary for European and Eurasian Affairs during a roundtable discussion on "NATO Enlargement and the Current State of the Trans-Atlantic Alliance." This submission follows several other intiatives, including submissions to Lord Roberston, Secretary General of NATO. [download]
• “Nato Enlargement: Promoting Western Values, Strengthening The Alliance” by Frank Koszorus, Jr., April 29, 2003
  A Statement Before The United States Senate Committee On Foreign Relations.
  [download]
• "U.S. Senate Unanimously Ratifies Nato Treaty; Senators Raise Rights Of Minorities: Federation Supports Efforts Aimed At Encouraging Romania And Slovakia To Respect Rights Of Hungarian Minorities And Restore Communal Properties" - Press Release by Zoltan Bagdy, May 9, 2003 [download]

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Congressional Resolutions and Records

• H.RES 191 - A RESOLUTION urging the "prompt and fair restitution of church properties by Romania and Slovakia - TOM LANTOS / TOM TANCREDO (April 6th 2005) in the House of Representatives [download]

• A RESOLUTION REGARDING THE ISSUE OF TRANSYLVANIAN HUNGARIANS -- HON. DONALD E. `BUZ' LUKENS (Extension of Remarks - February 26, 1990) in the House of Representatives [download]

• VIOLENCE IN TRANSYLVANIA -- HON. DON RITTER (Extension of Remarks - March 22, 1990) in the House of Representatives [download]
  
• Transylvanian Monitor #14: Property Restitution.

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Other Resources

• An Essay on the foundations of Rumanian Identity, Nationalism and Ethnic Cleansing - CONCEPTUAL CONFUSIONS CONCERNING THE ROMANIAN IDENTITY: NEAM AND POPOR AS EXPRESSIONS OF ETHNO-NATIONALISM (PART 3) - "...the motivation and the goal was common: racially determined mass murder." (Appeared in RFE/RFL Newsline, 6/5/2005 By Victor Neumann, professor of history at the West University of Timisoara, Romania.) [download]

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