JOHANNESBURG (miningweekly.com) – Toronto-listed Euro Sun Mining, headed by South African CEO Grant Sboros, is advancing a development-stage gold and copper project in Romania, a country which is reportedly shedding its rigidly bureaucratic past with considerable aplomb.

Unlocking the full potential of the Rovina Valley project, located in west-central Romania, is what Euro Sun is setting out to do with vigour, Sboros made clear in a Zoom interview with Mining Weekly. (Also watch attached Creamer Media video.)

In agreement with government, mining production will be more copper-centred amid the Critical Raw Materials Act passed by the European Union in December last year.

“This is our ticket to ride,” was Sboros’ comment on the new critical minerals legal framework, which specifies that the European Union should have the capacity to extract 10%, process 40%, and recycle 25% of its annual consumption of strategic raw materials by 2030.

Meanwhile, Euro Sun is going all out to make its 100%-owned Rovina Valley project as green as can be.

The planned mining process excludes cyanide and wet tailings and the people of the region are reportedly very keen that Romania’s 2000-year-old mining legacy be amplified.

Cyanide-free processing reduces the need for chemicals within the process, mitigating impurity penalties and protecting the environment, Euro Sun stated in a recent presentation document, which also drew attention to the company producing a clean, high-grade copper concentrate with a strong gold credit.

With Euro Sun also pledging to contribute to the European Union’s control of its supply chain, there is reportedly observable local eagerness for the project to go ahead. “I was there last week, and every single person who you engage, from waiter to mayor, wants the project to happen as quickly as possible,” communications consultant Richard Dolamore stated in a preliminary note to Mining Weekly.

Notwithstanding this enthusiasm, Euro Sun has full compliance at the very top of its agenda and respects everything around what it describes as a beautiful, relatively uninhabited, lightly wooded area with steep hills.

The project will be the biggest in the last 35 years and government will earn 45% of the bottom line.

Since beginning his role as CEO in January last year, Sboros has been engaging intensively with the Romanian government on permitting.

The environmental impact assessment stage is now a hair’s breadth away and the mine will take two years to build, with first production expected to take place in mid-July 2026.

The plan is to exploit the porphyry-style asset as an opencast operation over a 30- to 35-year stretch before probably heading underground.

“We're moving into a place that was historically mined just 5 km away from our current position, in the mountains of Rovina, very steep mining and not the biggest grades on the planet, but overall enough to produce ten-million ounces, with a view of a greater resource that we'll prove up on the rest of our licences adjacent to our properties. We‘re probably looking to double up on that,” Sboros said.

Meanwhile, some 40 km away, Gabriel Resources, another Canada-listed company, is intent on getting the Roșia Montană gold and silver project up and running, following a court case that spanned a dozen years and which is poised to net Gabriel considerable compensation.

“We’ve definitely seen a change from what was a bad perception of Romania. I’ve spent a lot of time on the ground with all the stakeholders and we've seen a shift from the way the previous government was trying to manage things, compared with the new government now in place, which wants to exploit the resources of the country,” Sboros highlighted.

Europe consumed 16% of the global copper market in 2018, but only accounts for about 5% of global production. With copper demand expected to reach 3.5-million tonnes by 2030, Euro Sun undertook in its presentation document to provide a sustainable supply to support the growing decarbonisation need.