By Stephen McGrath
The Independent (UK)
A parliamentary vote in Romania has rejected revisions to a new mining law that would have allowed Gabriel Resources, a Canadian mining company, to create Europe’s largest open cast gold mine in the Transylvanian village of Rosia Montana.
The amendments to the new law were rejected due to inadequate attendance from the part of the deputies with 160 votes for, 22 abstentions and 105 votes against — the required quorum was not met.
Over a planned 16-year extraction period the controversial project was set to reap 314 tonnes of gold and 1,500 tonnes of silver, flatten four mountain tops, and deposit a huge waste lake containing cyanide, a chemical used in the process of gold leaching.