The Canadian company Euro Sun Mining, the owner of the Rovina gold project in Romania, the second largest in Europe, has concluded a binding Memorandum of Understanding with the Anglo-Swiss group Glencore, the world’s largest commodity trader, for the production to be obtained at the field in Romania.
The project faces environmental hurdles generated by environmentalists forcing the invalidation of the permit.
In addition, Glencore has the right to nominate a director on the Euro Sun board of directors.
The Rovina mining project is the 14th largest developing deposit in the world and the second largest in Europe. It contains measured and indicated resources of 10.1 million gold equivalent ounces (217 tons of gold and 635,000 tons of copper).
Euro Sun, through the subsidiary Samax Romania, obtained the gold mining license from Rovina for an initial period of 20 years in 2015, the document being ratified by the government three years later.
Earlier this year, it was announced that the judges of the Cluj Court of Appeal canceled the environmental approval for the Rovina gold project following an intense mobilization of local residents and environmental organizations, which highlighted serious problems in the assessment of the project’s ecological impact.
It was reported that without this environmental permit, the mining company Euro Sun Mining would not be able to start mining. In autumn of 2023, it was announced that Euro Sun Mining must re-apply for environmental approval for the project.
Euro Sun then communicated that it would work on the preparation of new documentation for obtaining the environmental permit.
Euro Sun also stated that the project benefited from the support of the local authorities “because they fully understand the importance of the impact of the project on the development of the area.” (Romania-Insider)