the Imperial authorities. Charles VI funded the construction of ponds (tăuri) in 1733. After the empire broke up in 1918, most of the remaining veins were mined out under fixed-length concessions granted to local citizens. The sulphide-rich waste generated large volumes of sulphuric acid which in turn liberated heavy metals into local water sources, in addition to the mercury used to extract the gold. In 1948 the mines were taken over by the Romanian state, with traditional small scale underground mining continuing until the late 1960s. Attention then turned to the lower-grade gold disseminated through the rock surrounding the veins. In 1975 an open-cast pit was constructed at Cetate for bulk mining. This mine was operated by Roșiamin, a subsidiary of the state-owned company Regia Autonomă a Cuprului din Deva (RAC), and provided 775 jobs, representing most of the employment in the region. The ore was flotation-concentrated at Gura Roșiei and then extracted by cyanide leaching at Baia de Arieș. This mine needed subsidies of US$3 million per year in 2004 and was closed in 2006 before Romania joined the European Union. Mining project The Project's origins are in a 1995 deal signed by RAC Deva with the controversial Romanian-Australian businessman Frank Timiș about reprocessing the tailings at Roșia Montană. Several years later, the mining licence for an area of around Roșia Montană was transferred to the Roșia Montană Gold Corporation (RMGC) from Minvest Deva SA (successor to RAC Deva). RMGC is owned 80% by Toronto-listed company Gabriel Resources, 19.3% by the Romanian government via Minvest. Within the project, Roșia Montană Gold Corporation (RMGC) plans to produce 225 tonnes of gold and 819 tonnes of silver over 17 years and it would involve digging up a large area, involving the creation of four mining pits covering , the first two at the old mining sites of Cirnic and Cetate, followed by pits at Jig and Orlea in Phase II. Up to 250 million tonnes of cyanide-laced tailings will be stored in a pond in the Corna Valley behind a 185m-high dam. The corporation was not able to gain full authorization for the project. State authorities granted permits which were later annulled by the courts following appeals by environmental groups. The environmental impact assessment procedure started in 2004, but a final approval was still been given. The company began buying up houses in the city, but about 100 residents refused to