Abstract
The need and estimated utility for a structured analysis of the Roşia Montană gold exploitation project have been palpable in the Romanian public sphere during the last 15 years and there is a vast amount of conflicting information and opinions on the benefits and risks involved. This article provides a comprehensive decision analysis of the Roşia Montană project. Over 100 documents from the past years have been gathered regarding the Roşia Montană mining project, which cover the main official, formal and less formal documents covering the case and produced by a wide range of stakeholders. These were then analyzed while designing a multi-criteria tree including the relevant perspectives under which the most commonly discussed four alternatives were analyzed. The result of this can be translated into a valuable recommendation for the mining company and for the political decision-makers. If these stakeholders want the continuation of the project and its acceptance by civil society, the key challenge is to increase the transparency of the process and improve the credibility and legal aspects; if these aspects cannot be met, the decision-makers need to pay attention to the alternatives available for a sustainable development in the area.
Highlights
The Roşia Montană project refers to the plans of exploiting and processing gold and silver minerals from the Roşia Montană area in the Apuseni Mountains, Romania, through open-pit mining and cyanide leaching
There have in other contexts been several attempts to solve this to some extent by introducing, e.g., computer based methods for risk and decision analysis, but these have generally had some limited success, often due to unrealistic assumptions on the part of decision makers
Even though we have worked with imprecise data, the decision analysis model is rather robust, enabling us to evaluate the four alternatives
Summary
The Roşia Montană project refers to the plans of exploiting and processing gold and silver minerals from the Roşia Montană area in the Apuseni Mountains, Romania, through open-pit mining and cyanide leaching. The project was proposed to the Romanian Government by the exploitation license holder, S.C. Roşia Montană Gold Corporation S.A.Romanian policy makers are still facing visible setbacks in making a decision regarding the exploitation, while the company is currently pushing for a resolution through “positive dialogue with decision makers” [1]. Due to a failure to comply with the Romanian legislation on environment issues, the company has not obtained all the permits required to begin exploitation. Ever since the exploitation license was granted in 1999 to the National Copper, Gold and Iron Company “MINVEST” S.A. Deva, and was further transferred to the newly created S.C. Roşia Montană Gold
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