March 11 (SeeNews) - Romania's government said that it has won an arbitration case filed by Canada's Gabriel Resources before the World Bank's International Centre for Settlement of Investment Disputes (ICSID), in which the company sought compensation for its unsuccessful gold-mining project in Romania.
Gabriel Resources is now obliged to reimburse the costs related to the arbitration procedure, the government said in a press release on Friday. In the next 20 days, ICSID will publish the reasons for its decision.
Gabriel Resources claimed around $6.7 billion (6.12 billion euro) in damages from Romania, including interest, Leaua Damcali Deaconu Paunescu, the Romanian team of lawyers who represented Romania in the case, said in a separate press release on Sunday.
The litigation was initiated in 2015 by Toronto Stock Exchange-listed Gabriel Resources, whose main business has been the exploration and development of the Rosia Montana project in Romania, a major undeveloped gold deposit.
Gabriel Resources has held since 2000 a licence for the Rosia Montana gold and silver mine in Romania's Alba county. The project was blocked by the Romanian state in 2014, following nationwide protests against its development which started in the fall of 2013 and lasted several months. The project faced significant opposition from environmentalists, local residents, and various civil groups, mainly due to concerns over the usage of cyanide in the mining process and the displacement of local communities.
"This decision brings an end to arbitration proceedings that were initiated by Gabriel Resources in July 2015. In the course of the arbitration, the parties exchanged over 25 submissions and attended two main hearings, one between 2 and 13 December 2019, which dealt with liability, and between 28 September and 4 October 2020, which focused on technical and quantum issues," said LDDP.
The decision was adopted by the tribunal with a majority of two out of three and is final. Romania was represented by a legal consortium made up of Swiss law firm LALIVE and Romania's LDDP.
($=0.914041 euro)