Gold's Evangelist

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Kaplan acknowledges the paradox of promoting conservation while investing in an industry long associated with extreme environmental degradation, but he says any conflict between the two is easy for him to resolve. "If I'm given a choice between conservation and business, conservation wins, always," he says. "I've conserved a great multiple more than I've disturbed." His geologists apply what he calls the Tom Rule to their decisions about what land to acquire for mining. "If it looks like we shouldn't build a mine here, either take it and I'll hold the land to stop others from building on it, or skip it," he says. "I tell them: 'Use your common and aesthetic sense.' It sounds crazy to refer to aesthetics, but ultimately the morality of the endeavor should win out."

This was on his mind when he arrived in Transylvania in 2009 to get a gut check on Rosia Montana. He had alerted no one there about his visit, flying into the tiny Romanian city of Saibu with several colleagues from Tigris' London office and enduring a three-hour drive through the mountains. They explored the back roads around the mine, witnessing a degree of ecological damage that left Kaplan to theorize that the pollution dated to the time when the Roman Emperor Trajan conquered the region, marking the beginning of Rosia Montana's mining heritage.

Community and environmental activists have been fighting Gabriel Resources' plans for a decade, arguing that the use of cyanide in the mine threatens nearby villages and that a spill could contaminate the countryside extending into neighboring Hungary, where officials have joined the opposition. Kaplan counters that the area already has been devastated by centuries of mining—"the river literally runs red from sulfides"&mdashand that digging the mine would in fact help the county of Alba by repairing some of the damage of past mining projects.

Leading the resistance to the mine is a nongovernmental organization called Alburnus Maior, which was started in 2000 and is based at Rosia Montana. The group contends that Gabriel's plans will destroy historical sites and force resettlement of 740 farms and 140 apartments. The group also says that 40 Romanian NGOs and institutions support its "Save Rosia Montana" campaign, which proposes to boost the local economy through tourism, agribusiness, and small industries, including crafts. "We will continue to use all legal means at our disposal to stop this proposal from ever being realized," Alburnus Maior's Stephanie Roth said in an e-mail. Roth, a former environmental journalist, was instrumental in persuading the European Parliament to publicly oppose the mine. She said the fact that some residents will ultimately refuse to sell their properties to Gabriel means the mine won't ever get under way because the company needs all of the land to secure a construction permit. "I don't think that Gabriel's project will ever go ahead, and in contrast to Gabriel, the locals have all the time in the world," Roth said.

Rozalia Drumus, a 79-year-old retired schoolteacher, lives in Rosia Montana with her unemployed daughter and subsists on a 1,159 lei ($337) monthly pension. She has planted a sign on her gate: This property is NOT for sale. "We had a small happy village, but people's greed for money was too much," she says. "Gold is a bastard."

Kaplan ardently defends Gabriel's efforts, arguing that mining is the best way to help the economy of Romania. "Those who say a scarred landscape should be preserved at the expense of a truly exciting economic future for a poor community are being unjust," he says. "This is telling the local people to bootstrap their way to progress when they don't have the means to procure boots."

In June, Romania's environment minister said the government probably will resume a review of the project, which likely means months more of public debate. Even if Romanian government approval is obtained, it will take at least a year before gold can be pulled out of the ground. Meanwhile, as gold prices swing wildly and talk of a double-dip recession ripples across the markets, Kaplan retains his karmic calm. "People view gold as emotional, but when they demythologize it, when they look at it for what it is and the opportunity it represents, they're going to say, 'We really should own some of that.' The question will then change to 'Where do we get the gold?' "

With Irina Savu in Bucharest

Kelly is a reporter for Bloomberg News.

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