In order to develop the mine, 250 hectares will be deforested in Roşia Montană. In exchange, the new project provides for the planting of 1000 hectares of forest before the mining operations even begin, which is four times more than what is deforested.

The Company will rehabilitate the environment in the Rosia Montana Project area throughout the entire mining operation – not just at the end. In addition, environmental restoration is ensured by the financial guarantee deposited at the very beginning of the project

At Roşia Montană, the environmental restoration process will take place throughout the entire mining operation. In addition, from the very outset, the Company will deposit an environmental guarantee, which will be updated every year, and the money will be used only for rehabilitation. Modern mining means strict rules and procedures throughout the project stages, including environmental rehabilitation. As it may be seen from the description of the project stages,the project area will be rehabilitated at the beginning of the mine operation stage. Rehabilitation will begin as soon as the 5th year of operation and not only after mine closure so that the area may be restored for the community to enjoy.

The costs for the closure of the Roşia Montană Project are currently estimated at US$135 million, based on a 16-year period of exploitation.

Annual updates will be established by independent experts and approved by the Ministry of Environment and the National Agency for Mineral Resources (ANRM), as the competent governmental authorities. Periodical updates aim at ensuring at any time, in the unlikely event that the project is temporarily interrupted, that a sufficient Financial Guarantee for Environmental Restoration (GFRM) is in place, reflecting the costs associated with completing environmental restoration at that time.

The current pollution in Roşia Montană is the effect of past mining operations. RMGC has not carried out mining activities at Roşia Montană thus far. The hydrographic basin polluted with acid waters and the degraded environment are a consequence of historical uncontrolled, underfunded mining. History shows that mining operations in Roşia Montană have been carried out in various forms over the last 2000 years, and the mining methods used in the past have resulted in soil and water pollution with heavy metals and their compounds. Sulphur-containing rocks, in contact with oxygen and water, have generated a diluted solution of sulphuric acid, which have dissolved the heavy metals in the rock and gradually reached and polluted the surface or underground waters.

In the Roşia Montană area, the waters are very acidic and have a red color resulting from the high concentrations of dissolved heavy metals: copper, iron, manganese etc.

RMGC has not polluted the environment at Roşia Montană, but will clean the historical pollution left by previous operations. . RMGC has established a detailed plan for the collection and treatment of acidic waters flowing from the abandoned mining galleries. Further measures will be taken to clean the valleys of Roşia Montană and Corna, so that the water flowing into these runlets may support the aquatic flora and fauna.

EU standards allow gold mining by using cyanide technology, provided that its concentration at the end of the technological process does not exceed 10mg/l.

At Roşia Montană,, the cyanide concentration will be 5-7mg/l. Additionally, taking into consideration the current performances of the RMGC project, the concentration is ten times smaller than the standard accepted in the USA and other non-EU countries. Worldwide, 90% of the gold mining operations safely use cyanide technology.

The Roşia Montana Project includes a detailed plan for the preservation and restoration of the heritage in the area.

The Company will preserve and protect the area’s cultural heritage. Roşia Montană (called Alburnus Maior in antiquity) is neither the oldest settlement certified in Romania, nor the most significant Roman settlement from the Dacian period. The Company has committed to explore the vestiges of the ancient settlements from Roşia Montană through a complex heritage protection and preservation program.

Since 2001, RMGC has invested more than US$10 million in preventative archaeology and is planning to invest another US$35 million throughout the mining project’s life cycle. This will be the largest private investment in archaeological preservation in Romania, aimed at preserving and restoring the local cultural heritage.

The budget for the future cultural heritage includes plans such as: - The Roman Gallery of Cătălina Monuleşti which will be set up as a museum and copies built for certain galleries physically affected by the mining operations.

• Restoration of the 41 historical houses in Roşia Montană
• Restoration of the historical area of the locality (protected area), including over 300 houses, for the everyday life of the community
• Establishment of a museum for exhibiting archaeological discoveries
• Integration of the entire protected area and of the restored monuments in the European, regional and national circuit
• Follow-up of the preventive archaeological program

The cultural heritage protection program proposed by the Company (both above and under-ground) has been recently audited by the Oxford Archaeology Unit (Great Britain). They found that the archaeological works carried out here go beyond legal requirements and best practices in terms of quality.

You may see here that the project proposed by RMGC will transform the patrimony from Roşia Montană into a tourism development opportunity.

The mining project will create over 2,300 direct jobs during the mine construction phase, 880 direct jobs during mining operations and 3,000 jobs in total during operation.

90% of the gold extracted today in the world is obtained using cyanide technology. Mines from the USA, New Zealand, Canada, Italy, Finland, Spain and Sweden use this technology safely. As gold is currently found in very small quantities in the rock composition, mining companies need to use chemical substances to extract it from the ore. Cyanide is one of the few substances with the chemical properties required for gold extraction in safe and efficient conditions. After more than 100 years of cyanide use in the mining industry, the methods to use and neutralize cyanide are very well known, so that the risks to the people and environment are minimized. At Roşia Montană, gold extraction using cyanide technology is the most appropriate and efficient due to the type of ore.

In a modern mining project, the largest portion of the cyanide is consumed as a result of the chemical transformations during ore processing in the plant. The quantity of cyanide which remains in the process tailings will be neutralized using a modern and efficient oxidation process. This process has been used in more than 80 mines worldwide over the last 30 years. After neutralization, the tailings with low cyanide content will be stored in a specially designed tailings management facility, where the cyanide concentration will be further reduced. Cyanide will naturally degrade when exposed to air and natural light.

The RMP’s tailings management facility has been designed with increased safety and capacity to store extreme precipitations. Anywhere in the world, tailings management facilities are designed to store a single probable maximum precipitation (PMP); in the current project, the dam at Corna Valley may contain two consecutive probable maximum precipitations, while the probability for this to happen is 1 in 100 million years. This unusually large additional storage capacity, in addition to other design parameters of the Corna tailings management facility, make the dam system 1000 times safer than most of the tailings dams in the world.

The Romanian State has a 19.31% stake in the project with an additional entitlement to fees and royalties, while Romania will be entitled to 50% of the project benefits from related activities.

The new project from Roşia Montană will bring US$4 billion dollars to the Romanian economy:

• US$1.8 billion – direct benefits for the Romanian State in the forms of dividends, salary taxes, royalties and other duties
• US$2.2 billion – spent in Romania for human resources, electricity, transportation, constructions, process reagents, spare parts

After 20 years, the place will be unpolluted, with prosperous inhabitants, serious infrastructure – perfect for tourism.

Poverty does not create a future. Money does. This area cannot survive without significant investments. Before considering any other businesses / industries, major investments in the environment and the infrastructure will be required. Restarting mining operations requires all these investments and will lead to the development of cultural tourism. We want these industries to flourish with us.

The unemployment level in the local community exceeds 70%. Without RMGC, this percentage will further increase to 90%.

Cultural and tourism initiatives are possible at Roşia Montană – but only after a serious clean-up of the environment and following considerable investments in the infrastructure for the long term. The Company has already taken a step in this direction in order to foster investments and encourage those activities which will contribute to the future development of tourism. An example would be the preventative archaeological program by which unique artifacts are discovered and preserved. They are to be exhibited in a new mining museum.