News

December 09, 2008

Carpathian Follows In The Footsteps Of The Ancient Romans At Rovina, Where There’s Already Ten Million Ounces, And Counting

By Alastair Ford

“There’s a heritage of mining in Romania that goes all the way back to the Romans”, says Randy Ruff, vice president of exploration at Carpathian Gold. The Romans didn’t hold Romania for too long, although they left enough of an impression for the locals to name the country after them. They also left a legacy of systematic gold mining. Between then and now, estimates Randy, around 55 million ounces were extracted from the region in which Carpathian’s key Rovina gold-copper porphyry project sits. The clues, it has to be said, are all there, because Rovina lies within the Metalliferi Mountains, in the southern part of the Apuseni Mountains, in the area known as the Golden Quadrilateral. How about that? – the Golden Quadrilateral.

And yet, despite the 55 million ounces already extracted, what a difference a bit of capitalism makes, even if capitalism has been a media whipping boy over the last few months. Think back to the bad old days, and imagine well how nothing much at all happened in the way of development in a country which spent almost its entire GDP on building the presidential palace. But once the Romanians had got rid of president Ceaucescu back in 1989 and thrown off his somewhat erratic brand of communism,...