Romania Wants Gold Mine Pulled From UNESCO List

Romanian Prime Minister Mihai Tudose has angered environmental activists after announcing on Tuesday that the government will ask UNESCO to set aside a request made by the previous government in January to declare the 2,000-year-old Rosia Montana gold mine a protected area.

The Prime Minister made the statement during a talk show on Romania TV, a television station close to the ruling Social Democrat Party.

Tudose accused the former technocratic Prime Minister Dacian Ciolos and former Environment Minister Cristian Pasca Palmer of wrongly including the Rosia Montana area in the Western Carpathians on the UNESCO World Heritage Site list.

The UN cultural organization accepted the request on February 5.

Tudose said there was little chance now of UNESCO accepting the government's fresh request because "it is very difficult once they accept it [a request for inclusion on the list]. Then it's almost impossible to remove it."

He said that because of the UN listing, Romania risked never being able to exploit significant iron and gold deposits in the area.

"We will try to send a letter and state that we do not support the same point of view anymore, which will put us in a very strange position with international institutions. If the situation is final, it's all over. Our resources are there," the PM said.

The statement came hours after the former environmental activist and current opposition Senator Mihai Gotiu - a member of the Save Romania Union NGO - accused the government of seeking to withdraw the Rosia Montana site from the UNESCO Heritage List.

The apparent reason would be to settle a lawsuit filed in Washington by the Canadian-based firm Gabriel Resources, which has been trying to obtain the right to exploit the gold...