In an Uncertain World Strike While the Gold is Hot
Tue, 18 Mar 2008 23:00:02 GMT

With gold hitting $1,000 an ounce, market uncertainty stretching out to the horizon and demand for raw materials still rising Rosia Montana has a golden opportunity – don’t blow it.

I come from a former pit village in England. When the pits closed in the eighties the area became a ghost town. It took a generation before the area recovered. Many including myself moved away and South Yorkshire took a stunning blow to morale. 

The recovery took place in one of the richest countries in the world and even then it was a slow and painful one. There was a well educated and well organised workforce, access to capital and national and European aid, world class infrastructure and the English language. Still, a decade passed before we saw the green shoots of recovery.

 The North East could even, eventually, make the experience into a world cultural phenomenon; The Full Monty and Billy Elliot shared our gallows humour and the memory of lost communities. But these films could only be made in 1997 and 2000 respectively. By then much of the bitterness had begun to fade.

 It pains me to see Rosia Montana in the same sort of transition without the advantages of a region of the UK - and Romania seemingly ready to forgo the chance to make that transition bearable if not tenable. 

Long term the gold mines will be exhausted of course (it has been in operation since Roman times). However, using cyanide extraction techniques, used in goldmines throughout the world, there is still a great amount of wealth to be had out of the ground. 

With that wealth and activity comes the opportunity to cleanse the landscape of two millennia of pollution and provide infrastructure, and education that will help the locals in the tough labour market of Eastern Europe. This could reverse the decades of neglect in the region. 

The mining company is not in it for charity of course, but the government and locals can both take a hefty cut. The mining company in turn provides capital, expertise and organisation. 

One thing to remember is that gold is money. It might have many industrial purposes and even shows up in trinkets, but there’s never a problem selling it. At $1,000 dollars an ounce, and rising, now is the time.

Mark Beachill

PS When the original Golden Myths was written in September 2006 gold was $650 an ounce