I would hold a referendum on mining gold from Rosia Montana, PM Ciolacu says

Prime Minister Marcel Ciolacu declared on Thursday, in a discussion with journalists, that he would hold a referendum to see whether the Romanians agree to start mining gold from Rosia Montana.

"I would hold a referendum on whether it is appropriate to mine the gold from Rosia Montana", said Ciolacu.

The prime minister made the clarification before the Government meeting.

PM Ciolacu stated that the Government would wait on Friday for the International Court of Arbitration of the International Centre for Settlement of Investment Disputes (ICSID) decision in the case of Rosia Montana and, depending on its provisions, will decide on the way forward.

Also on Thursday, the Minister of Finance, Marcel Bolos, stated that the negotiation strategy in the Rosia Montana file would be implemented when the dialogue with the holders of the decision begins, under the conditions that the decision is expected to be pronounced by the international arbitration court regarding compensations.

He specified that the maximum amount requested by the investor from Rosia Montana is 6.7 billion dollars, and the minimum "what they invested". "The minimum of what was presented as a document, and I think it is a minimum from which the decision starts, is one billion dollars, we know this, and in this range should be the value of this decision, respectively the value of the impact budget that we will have from the decision from Rosia Montana", stated Marcel Bolos.

Bolos reminded that there is also the prospect of a non-monetary decision, and this alternative will be taken into account by the international arbitration court.