Celebrating Rosia Montana

On February 16, people from the Romanian community and their supporters in Toronto celebrated 1882 years of Rosia Montana, a proposed UNESCO site, and raised awareness of the threat of Canadian mining.
 
Historic Rosia Montana in Romania will soon be exploited if the mining project is passed. Rosia Montana Gold Corporation (RMGC) is owned 80 per cent by Gabriel Resources, a Canadian mining company that is planning to implement the greatest opencast mine in Europe. According to Save Rosia Montana, the project will permanently endanger 6000 people from the neighbouring areas, four mountains will be blasted away, 2064 private properties will be relocated, 975 houses will be torn down (out of which 41 houses are considered national heritage sites), seven churches will demolished (blown up or covered by the cyanide pond), 11 cemeteries will be relocated and 12,000 tons of cyanide will used annually.
 
At the beginning of the event, Celebrating Rosia Montana, at Beit Zatoun, the organizers (who are leading members of Canada Save Rosia Montana) screened short videos of locals sending messages to those in solidarity with them. The messages were showing the strength of those resisting in Rosia Montana— “Rosia Montana will exist and we will not leave.” Save Rosia Montana, one of the largest social and environmental movements in Romania, has been successful in attracting hundreds of thousands of active members, supporters, and protestors in Europe and different parts of the world.
 
Solidarity with people in Rosia Montana means exposing the plans of the Canadian mining company and showing support towards those resisting there. Helping to make Rosia Montana to be a UNESCO World Heritage Site is one tactic to stopping the destructive mining project. 
 
Photo credit: Eugen-Florin Zamfirescu