A Canadian mining company has accused Romania of holding "hostage" its plans for a controversial open-cast gold mine -- the biggest in Europe -- and threatened Tuesday to bring the dispute to international arbitration.
Gabriel Resources said in a statement that the Transylvanian project "has become hostage to conflicts between rival political factions," it said.
The company has been trying for 15 years to get a permit from the environment ministry to extract 300 tonnes of gold in the picturesque village of Rosia Montana. It claims the mine would bring hundreds of jobs and boost Romania's economy.
But experts say the open-cast mine poses pollution risks with the use of thousands of tonnes of cyanide, and that it would also destroy four mountains and damage Roman-era mining galleries.
The mine plan sparked a wave of protests unprecedented in Romania since the 1990s, drawing tens of thousands of people onto the streets.
At the end of 2013 Romanian lawmakers rejected a measure that would have opened the way for the mine project, which has been deadlocked since then.
"The Gabriel Group has invested significant capital on the development of the project, and there is still no certainty on the process to successfully permit the project," it said in the statement.
In September 2013, Gabriel indicated it might seek $4 billion in damages over the rejection of the project.
Without a "satisfactory solution", the company said it was "prepared to present its claims to international arbitration".