In an ancient oak forest in the mountains of West-Central Romania in Rosia Montana it was planned to place Europe's largest open gold mine. The Canadian-based company needed the 2,000 people relocated and 900 homes eliminated.

"The company plans to use hazardous cyanide compounds to separate the gold and silver from the rock. The mine's waste rock then would form a 185 metre-high dam across the Aries River valley, immersing a nearby village. A hazardous cyanide storage pond, together with tons of waste laden with heavy metals, would cover as many as 600 hectares or nearly 1,500 acres. As a result, the Aries River, the most important water resource in the region, is at serious risk of pollution, threatening the health and lives of 100,000 people."

Most of gold mining involves the release of cyanide into our environment. The environmental activist Stephanie Roth was just recently awarded the San Francisco-based Goldman Environmental Prize for halting this project und thereby preventing serious pollution and social dislocation.

Many Australians, like Bob Brown, Eileen Kampakuta Brown, Eileen Wani Wingfield, Jacqui Katona and Yvonne Margarula were previously also awarded the Goldmanprize for their grassroot environmental work.