While exploring Vice's website the other day I came across an article which caught my eye titled “Romanian Protesters Still Don’t Want Gold Companies To Blow Up Their Mountains” by Ioana Moldoveanu. The article is about a gold mining company that blows up mountains using cyanide and has had ties to "corpse trafficking" in its past endeavors.
The article tells us about how many Romanians are protesting the Rosia Montana Gold Company (RMGC), which wants to blow up a few mountains to extract gold. In the process not only would the company be doing considerable damage to the environment but entire communities would need to be relocated. The RGMC is using a method of mining which involves using cyanide to extract gold from the ore that will create "214 million cubic meters of toxic cyanide waste". Hearing about cyanide in conjunction with blowing up mountains does not seem like the best idea to me. It sounds crazy, and all in the name of making some money. The extent to which some people really just don't care about the well being of others, and especially the only planet that we have to live on, has always left me with a feeling of confusion and awe.
Using a photo gallery and youtube video, which portrays the protests in Bucharest that consist of over 15,000 people flooding the streets, we can see exactly what is occurring in Romania through a first person view. It's also quite apparent that mass amounts of people do not want this mining operation to happen. Romanians are protesting a bill which, if passed, will give the RMGC the go-ahead to start blowing up mountains and extracting gold. You can check out their reasons for protesting the bill, as well as information about the area of Rosia Montana, here.
I really like how the author embedded links throughout the article that allow me to explore other aspects of the situation. In one such link, which really caught my attention, we are given insight into the tactics this company has previously used to achieve its goals. Vice did an article a few months before detailing how RMGC has been paying off families to move their loved ones corpses out of their current graves and move them elsewhere so that they can mine the land underneath. I am highly skeptical towards any company that is associated with "corpse trafficking".
From what I have gathered through reading this article and its various links, the RGMC seems to essentially be a corpse-trafficking, mountain destroying, and life ruining entity. If these words were associated with a human being we would deem them dangerous and psychotic and would probably have them arrested. However, it is an interesting topic and definitely worth the read.
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