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Ponta : Rosia Montana, a controversial project, I am not convinced by it
Premier Ponta stated on Friday that the project at Rosia Montana which will get under parliamentary debate this autumn, is an extremely controversial one which he personally does not find convincing, showing that the PSD MPs would not give a political vote, on the contrary they would vote according to their conscience.
‘There is only one project this autumn about which I really don’t ask the group leaders to take a certain decision. Really, each will vote according to their conscience, as they think it is better for their electorate’ Ponta said.
‘It’s a very controversial project, I am not convinced by it, I am talking about Rosia Montana. I was thinking that as it is a controversial project it could not be decided by the government, it should be decided by those who represent the citizens of Romania, and you are those’ Ponta said.The premier made this statement at the reunion of the parliamentary groups of PSD which takes place at Mamaia.
The draft law which regulates the exploitation of ores in the region of Rosia Montana was approved in the Tuesday meeting of the government and will be sent to the Parliament for adoption. The exploitation would start in November 2016, after the urban area plan will be approved by the end of the year, and the share of the state would increase by another 5.69%, at 25% of the shares, but conditioned by the issuing in time of all authorisations, according to a draft of the Agreement between the government, Gabriel Resources and Rosia Montana Gold Corporation for the beginning of the exploitation.
The investor will pay the government a part of 6% of the production value, the state having the option of requiring the company Rosia Montana Gold Corporation (RMGC) as payment of the debt, according to the project. According to the quoted draft, the share of the state will increase at 25% in two stages, both conditioned by the cummulative meeting by the Romanian authorties of several commitments.
As regards the benefits of the Romanian state, the two parties estimate that the project Rosia Montana will generate for the state budget and the local budgets income of approximately 2.3 billion dollars and a direct effect in the Romanian economy of approximately 2.9 billion dollars, at a price of reference of 1,200 dollars-ounce ( treasury ingots) the total of direct economic benefits of the project for Romania being estimated at over 5.2 billion dollars, as long as the relevant indicators of the fiscal legislation are kept, as well as the gold price, the costs for the works, services and necessary products for the mining exploitation, as well as the provisions of the business plan for RMGC, publicly assumed according to the rules of the capital market