Some local residents refused to sell their properties to the Roșia Montană Gold Corporation and, in order for the project to commence, the state would have needed to exercise eminent domain.

[8] The extraction licenses owned by state-owned Minvest Deva were transferred to the joint venture[9] following a call by Minister of Industries Radu Berceanu in a letter that has since disappeared.

[9] The company claimed to invest $250 million (raised from the stock market, banks and mutual funds) and it promised that within three years the project would create 25,000 jobs.

[9] The Social Liberal Union has drifted away from its platform prior to the parliamentary elections and the Government approved a draft law regulating the conditions of participation, passing it to the Parliament for debate.

The Prime Minister Victor Ponta has also digressed claiming that the Government has approved the bill to prevent being sued for compensations and the Parliament will definitely vote against it closing the subject.

[19] Opposition to the project was originally organized by Eugen David, a local farmer who refused to sell his land to Roșia Montană Gold Corporation.

This fear was augmented by the precedent of another gold mining company in Romania, which similarly promised a state-of-the-art, self-contained, environmental-friendly project, having a dam burst (see 2000 Baia Mare cyanide spill) and the cyanide-laced water of the tailings pond flowed into the Danube,[1] leading to one of Europe's biggest environmental disasters.

The company claims that the local area has been polluted by 2000 years of bad mining techniques and that its environmental-impact analysis shows that the project will help restore the environment.

This includes large parts of the well-preserved 2000-year-old Roman mine galleries, which have attracted talk of a possible nomination to become a UNESCO World Heritage site.

[28] On the other side of the political spectrum, Democratic-Liberal MP Theodor Paleologu claimed to oppose the project due to "the corruption of politicians and journalists".

[29] In October 2013, Liberal Senator Sorin Roșca Stănescu accused Traian Băsescu of receiving bribes from RMGC over the Roșia Montană Project through an offshore bank account in Seychelles.

[30] Gabriel Resources has a big advertising budget, receiving a systematically biased favorable campaign media coverage from certain newspapers and television stations.

[31][32] The controversy includes commercials being withdrawn due to unsupported claims[33] and Gabriel Resources employees spamming online editions of media outlets and blogs with editorial oversight with favorable propaganda using proxies when necessary.

[36] This film presented the plight of the anti-Gold Corporation residents of Rosia Montana, with a strong emphasis on the cultural and natural treasures of the area.

The tourism attracted by the natural beauty and tranquillity of this isolated spot of the world is presented versus the risks of using huge amounts of cyanide in the gold ore processing.