Rosia Montana/Romania, 3 May 2012 – Mr. Attila Korodi, Romania’s Minister for the Environment today announced the results of a legal audit on the legal effect of the recent Alba Iulia Court of Appeal’s ruling to annul Rosia Montana’s urbanism plans vis-a-vis the mine proposal’s evaluation procedure. The legal audit recommends the halting of the entire evaluation procedure.

“Today I received the results of the analysis which I solicited with regards to Rosia Montana. The attorneys confirm that the absence of a valid urbanism plan represents an impossibility to continue the evaluation procedure. It recommends that the Technical Analysis Commission requests the investor to submit a new urbanism certificate that reflects a valid urbanism plan”, declared Minister Attila Korodi quoted by the Romanian News Agency Mediafax.

According to the relevant Mediafax press release, the audit was carried out by the ‘Leaua and Associates’ law firm which represented the Minister for the Environment in all the litigation cases related to Rosia Montana. The audit and its conclusions have been adopted by the ministry’s Legal Department.

Mediafax also quoted the Minister saying he will recommend the future minister for the Environment to implement the audit’s recommendations. According to Mr. Korodi, the future Minister should submit this legal assessment to the Technical Analysis Committee which should request supplementary clarifications from the Rosia Montana project owner (TSX:GBU) or directly take the necessary measures.

On 5 April 2012, the Alba Iulia Court of Appeal annulled the juridical effects of the urbanism plans for the Rosia Montana mine proposal. These had been approved by Rosia Montana’s Local Council with decision no. 1 of January 2009. Alburnus Maior’s relevant press release can be accessed here.

The Ministry for the Environment solicited this legal assessment in order to decide how to proceed with the evaluation procedure following the Alba Iulia Court of Appeal’s irrevocable verdict.
 
“The audit’s conclusion are in full accordance with the legal provisions to which we made reference to when one month ago we asked the Ministry to halt any evaluation on the Rosia Montana project,” declared Eugen David, President of Alburnus Maior.

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Further information can be obtained from: +40741137266 or alburnusmaior@ngo.ro