Roșia valley · Metaliferi Mountains, Alba county · today

# The mountain with four skins

From the town you see only a quiet valley, with old houses and a mountain lake. But under the valley lie four mines, one over another, from four eras: the Roman galleries 1,800 years old, with a work contract kept in wax; the centuries of fire and gunpowder; a 400-metre communist quarry; and the giant pit that was never dug, stopped by people in the street and in Parliament, then tried at Washington.

We open the mountain together, skin by skin. On the left you see the skin you are in and its tool; on the right, the years from each skin's story.

The Cetate quarry, 1970–2006. Photo: PanchoS, CC0, via Wikimedia Commons.

## Where we open the mountain

Roșia Montană sits in the Metaliferi Mountains, in the Apuseni, west of Alba Iulia and a few kilometres from Abrud. The Romans called it Alburnus Maior. The surrounding mountains — Cetate, Cârnic, Orlea, Jig — are all pierced by galleries: the man-made cave here measures, all eras together, some 80 kilometres, on a 2016 ministries figure.     Roșia Montană  Alba Iulia  Abrud    Roșia Montană  Alba Iulia  Abrud

Outlines: Natural Earth (public domain). Coordinates: Nominatim / OpenStreetMap.

Map: Natural Earth + Nominatim / OpenStreetMap.

Alburnus Maior · 7 km of galleries

## The first skin: the Roman galleries

After the conquest of Dacia, Rome brought skilled miners from Dalmatia and ran the most extensive underground gold working of the Roman world known at the 2021 inscription: UNESCO counts some 7 kilometres of Roman works, in separate pieces, not one continuous tunnel. Their heart lies in south-west Cârnic: pillar-supported chambers, spiral staircase galleries and vertical working faces of a type unparalleled elsewhere.

The galleries are known by their profile: a trapezoid widening from 1–1.4 m at the ceiling to 1.8–2.5 m at the floor, 1.5–2 metres high, cut with chisel and hammer. Here and there stand pillars of undug rock holding the roof, work chambers and a spiral staircase, one of a kind. Fire was used little: in only two sectors, under 5% of the known ancient workings.

All in all, say the estimates, the Romans took some 500 tonnes of gold in 166 years — an estimate, not a weighed total.

A Roman gallery. Photo: Codrinb, CC BY-SA 3.0 RO, via Wikimedia Commons.

Tablet XI · 70 denarii

## The contract in wax

Some 50 wax-coated wooden tablets were found in the galleries, of which some 25 documents survived and were published, dated between 131 and 167. Among them, a work contract: on 20 May 164, Memmius, son of Asclepius, hired himself to Aurelius Adiutor for mine work, for 70 denarii to the Ides of November (13 November), plus meals — the last word reads with difficulty, and the question mark is the museum's.

We know the witnesses by name: Titus, son of Beusantis, also called Bradua, of Illyro-Dalmatian stock, and Socratios, son of Socration, of Greco-Oriental stock. The tone is any contract's: who, how much, until when, and what happens if either side breaks its word. The tablet sits today at the National Museum of Romanian History in Bucharest.

The whole tablets story, with the Latin text, is told by the page [The 131 Deed](https://mariuscomper.uk/actul-din-131/en/).

Memmius's contract, 20 May 164. Photo: Dorieo, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons.

Păru-Carpeni · 3.90 m wheels

## The wheels that lifted the water

The gold lay deep and water lay everywhere: to dig down, the Romans set wooden wheels lifting water from level to level. At Păru-Carpeni four wheels worked in series — perhaps five, the chambers read with difficulty — and the excavated wheel measured 3.90 m across with 27 buckets. The surviving timber still sits in place, underground.

A similar installation stood at Cătălina-Monulești, where a Roman wooden water-lifting machine was already found in 1855. The wheels stood deep down, where the water gathered, and kept the galleries dry.

Fire and gunpowder · 226 stamp mills

## The second skin: fire, powder, water

After the Romans the digging went on, at a smaller pace: with fire, which cracks rock heated then cooled fast, then with iron tools and, from Habsburg times, with powder blasting. Ore was crushed in wooden water-driven stamp mills: the UNESCO file counts 119 in 1757 and 226 in 1772. The resulting sand was washed and picked in a șaitroc, a wooden trough.

The mills' water came from the tăuri, the mountain's artificial lakes: over a hundred, on the UNESCO tour's count, of which eight great ones survive today — Tăul Mare, Brazi, Anghel, Țarinii, Găuri, Cartușului, Țapului and Cornei. The oft-quoted year 1733 is rather the year of the great state waterworks, not necessarily each lake's birthday.

Tăul Brazi, water for the stamp mills. Photo: RMGC, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons.

The Cetate quarry · 400 m

## The third skin: the open pit

From 1970 the state moved to open-cast mining on Mount Cetate: giant terraces bit into the summit until 2006, when working stopped. At the top the pit runs some 400 metres across, and some 120 metres were cut off the peak. (One study dates the great pit to 1971, not 1970: the start is given a year either way.)

The price showed only afterwards: the quarry erased the Curțile Romane, the old Roman surface workings, and much of Cetate's mining landscape, galleries and all. What lay beneath can now be studied only at the edges.

The 4 quarries that never were

## The fourth skin: the pit that never was

Founded in 1997, the Roșia Montană Gold Corporation proposed something else: four open pits — Cetate, Cârnic, Orlea and Jig — with ground ore and gold taken out with cyanide, by the CIL process, and tailings gathered in a pond in Corna Valley. The company's report counted 960 affected families, seven churches and four prayer houses in the project area.

They stayed on paper too: people took to the streets, parliament rejected the law, UNESCO listed the mountain, and the Washington tribunal turned the company away. In the 3D section, the fourth skin appears as a white shadow — the pit as drawn, never dug.

The gold · 1.3 grams a tonne

## It all began with a volcano

The gold here is epithermal: hot waters laid it down some 12.8 million years ago (12.71–12.85 million, on the mineralisation dating) in breccia pipes inside a volcanic vent. The host rock is rather dacite than andesite: andesite came later, as a blanket over the deposit. The average is modest: some 1.3 grams of gold and 6 of silver a tonne, usually between 0.5 and 2 grams; on the vein, in the rich ore the Romans picked, it passes 30 grams.

Do the sums at home: at 1.3 grams a tonne, gathering one kilogram of gold means shifting some 770 tonnes of rock. The Romans, with chisel and hammer, picked only the rich veins: hence estimated hundreds of tonnes, not millions of tonnes of waste.

The trial · 8 March 2024

## The mountain that won its trial

On 1 September 2013, after the government sent parliament the mine's special law, Bucharest took to the streets; on 15 September The Guardian counted over 20,000 people in the capital alone. The Senate rejected the law on 19 November 2013, with 119 votes for rejection, and the Chamber of Deputies, decisive, rejected it on 3 June 2014.

On 27 July 2021 UNESCO put the Roșia Montană Mining Landscape on the World Heritage List — and, at once, on the list of those in danger, over the plans to resume mining. On 8 March 2024 the ICSID tribunal in Washington rejected the Gabriel Resources claims 2–1 and made the company pay Romania's costs, some 10 million dollars. The company had asked for 4.4 billion dollars, says the Associated Press; it got zero. The company's annulment bid is still on the docket: the file's latest entry is 1 July 2026. And the exploitation licence died on its own on 20 June 2024 — the company fights that in court.

We climb back to daylight. Above, the story continues on paper: who the gold people were, and what we still do not know.

Magheru, September 2013. Photo: Bogdan, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons.

## Pick a skin

Jump to the skin that interests you; the 3D mountain opens there.

## The gold: one volcano, one figure, two sums

The Roșia Montană gold was born in the heat of a volcanic vent, some 12.8 million years ago: hot waters rose through breccia pipes and left gold and silver behind. Geologists call it an epithermal deposit, of dacite more than andesite. The average content is small — some 1.3 grams of gold a tonne — which is exactly why the Romans hunted the rich veins, over 30 grams, leaving the poor mountain in peace.

How much gold did the Romans take? UNESCO says "some 500 tonnes" in 166 years: a State Party estimate, with no published method, not a weighed total. How much is left? The company said, in 2012, 10.1 million ounces of gold (some 314 tonnes) and 47.6 million ounces of silver, in 214.9 million tonnes of ore — its figures, not a new state count. The state, through the 2013 ANRM voice, spoke of 247 tonnes of gold and 905 of silver as output after processing: another category, another sum, the two do not compare directly.

## The people: Dalmatians hired by contract

Mining here was organised as early as Trajan's time, with Illyro-Dalmatian peoples brought to Dacia: Pirustae, Baridustae, Sardeates and others, settled — say the scholars — in compact groups. No foundation act survives; what we know for certain starts with the tablets.

The place's oldest mention is tablet XVIII, of 6 February 131: a contract (of work, on the 2026 MNIR show; of work or loan, on the older texts), written by Valerius Firmus for Illyrians with names like Verzo and Dasius, and ending with the place-name, Alburnus Maior. 6 February 131 is the first mention, not the foundation: the town already stood. Likewise, Roșia is the oldest documented mining settlement, not the oldest settlement — Histria is seven centuries older, as [its page](https://mariuscomper.uk/histria/en/) shows.

Everyday detail comes from tablet XI, Memmius's contract of 20 May 164: a six-month hiring, 70 denarii, Illyrian and Greek witnesses, rules for whoever breaks its word. The Latin texts and translations, on [The 131 Deed](https://mariuscomper.uk/actul-din-131/en/).

The tablet XVIII plaque, at Roșia Montană. Photo: Codrinb, CC BY-SA 3.0 RO, via Wikimedia Commons.

## The galleries: each network with its years

Under the mountain spreads a town of galleries from every era: Roman ones 7 kilometres (UNESCO), Habsburg and modern ones many more, and altogether some 80 kilometres, on the ministries' 2016 figure. The Romans left the trapezoid profile, the support pillars and the spiral staircase; the middle centuries left lakes and stamp mills; the 20th century left the quarry.

To visit today: the mining museum, with 170 m of original Roman galleries, down 157 steps, in the Orlea massif. The Cătălina-Monulești gallery — over 300 m researched on six levels, 390 m made safe, including 200 m of Roman workings — is closed to ordinary visiting: the museum route is at Orlea, not Cătălina. For current hours and tickets, see [the museum's page](https://minvestdeva.ro/muzeul-mineritului-rosia-montana/).  Networks and their years

 | Network | Years / era | Measure

 | Roman galleries | 106–~271 | some 7 km, in pieces; trapezoid profile; spiral staircase

 | South-west Cârnic | Roman, 2nd–3rd c. | pillar chambers; spiral staircases; vertical faces

 | Păru-Carpeni | Roman | 4 drainage wheels (perhaps 5); 3.90 m, 27 buckets; in situ

 | Cătălina-Monulești | Roman + modern | over 300 m on 6 levels; closed to the public

 | Museum (Orlea) | Roman, visitable | 170 m of original galleries; 157 steps

 | Cetate quarry | 1970–2006 | ~400 m at top; 120 m off the peak; Curțile Romane erased

## The trial: the law, the list, the court

The company's project, as filed: four open pits — Cetate, Cârnic, Orlea and Jig — ground ore, gold taken out with cyanide by the CIL process, and tailings gathered in a pond in Corna Valley. The company counted 960 affected families; a 2003 Holy Synod letter gave other figures, of that date: some 900 families, 740 houses and 138 flats, 8 churches moved and four massifs undone. Nothing was built, so every figure is what would have been, not what happened.

The run of facts: 1 September 2013, the street; 19 November 2013, the Senate rejects; 3 June 2014, the Chamber of Deputies, decisive, rejects; 27 July 2021, UNESCO puts the mountain on the list and, at once, on the list of those in danger; 8 March 2024, ICSID rejects the company's claims 2–1 and orders it to pay some 10 million dollars in costs. The company had asked for 4.4 billion dollars, says the Associated Press; it got zero. The annulment bid and the licence case are still on the docket, in their September 2026 state.

## Eight statements: true or false?

Choose. The answers check out against the page's sentences.
-

The Roman galleries have a trapezoid profile, narrower at the ceiling than at the floor.
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The Alburnus Maior settlement was founded on 6 February 131.
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Memmius hired himself for 70 denarii to 13 November 164.
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The 500 tonnes of Roman gold are a weighed total from ledgers.
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The Păru-Carpeni wheel measured 3.90 m across with 27 buckets.
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The Cătălina-Monulești gallery is the route visited today at the mining museum.
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The Chamber of Deputies rejected the mine law on 3 June 2014.
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The trial against the Gabriel company ended for good in 2024.    Share

## How we worked and what we do not know

The dimensions are the published ones: Roman galleries some 7 km, profile 1–1.4 m at the ceiling and 1.8–2.5 m at the floor, wheels of 3.90 m with 27 buckets, the Cetate quarry of ~400 m with ~120 m cut off the peak. The 3D mountain keeps their profiles; placing the massifs and galleries against each other is schematic, because we used no published survey of the whole network as a base map. The fourth skin — the projected quarries — is drawn as a shadow, because it was never dug.

What we do not know: whether the Dacians dug here before the Romans (possible, contested), let alone whether anyone dug in the Bronze Age (unproven); which year powder first entered the mountain (used in the 18th century); how many lakes exactly survive and when each was born; how many wheels stood at Păru-Carpeni, four or five; when the last Roman gallery fell silent (~271 is the era's end, not a closure record). On the trial we give only dated facts and the September 2026 state: the annulment and the licence are on the docket.

Photographers: PanchoS (CC0), Codrinb, Bogdan, Dorieo and RMGC (CC BY-SA), via Wikimedia Commons (credits under each picture). Map: Natural Earth + Nominatim / OpenStreetMap.

## Sources
- [UNESCO, July 2021](https://whc.unesco.org/en/news/2319/): the inscription, the estimated 500 tonnes, 7 km, the wheels, the tablets, the danger list.
- [The Oxford significance report, Cârnic massif](https://users.ox.ac.uk/~corp0057/Raport-Oxford-Rosia-Montana-MD1.pdf): the trapezoid profile, the fire sectors, the 7 km.
- [Ciugudean 2012, ancient gold mining](https://www.ancientportsantiques.com/wp-content/uploads/Documents/AUTHORS/Ciugudean2012-Gold%20MiningRomania.pdf): Găuri, the Cârnic 1 timber, the presumed Dacian phase.
- [MNIR, the wax tablets](https://magazinistoric.ro/tablitele-cerate-de-la-alburnus-maior/) (in Romanian): contracts XVIII and XI, the parties, the witnesses.
- [The 131 Deed](https://mariuscomper.uk/actul-din-131/en/): the Latin texts and the whole tablets story.
- [The mining museum, Roșia Montană](https://minvestdeva.ro/muzeul-mineritului-rosia-montana/) (in Romanian): the 170 m at Orlea, the 157 steps.
- [The UNESCO tour, Cătălina-Monulești](https://www.turulunesco.rosiamontana.eu/obiective/catalina) (in Romanian): the closed gallery, the tablets found there.
- [The UNESCO tour, Tăul Brazi](https://www.en.turulunesco.rosiamontana.eu/landmarks/taulbrazi): over 100 lakes, the year 1733, the stamp mills.
- [ICSID, file ARB/15/31](https://icsid.worldbank.org/cases/case-database/case-detail?CaseNo=ARB%2F15%2F31): the 8 March 2024 award, the annulment on the docket.
- [Gabriel Resources, 8 March 2024](https://www.gabrielresources.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/03/080324_GBU_Tribunal_Decision.pdf): the 2–1 dismissal, some 10 million dollars in costs.
- [Gabriel Resources, reserves](https://gabrielresources.com/projects/reserves/): 10.1 million ounces of gold, the company's 2012 figures.
- [Associated Press, 9 March 2024](https://apnews.com/article/4886f02098b57eb7a17bd532d916c3e7): the 4.4 billion dollars asked, zero got.     [mariuscomper.uk](https://mariuscomper.uk/) · [Română](/rosia-montana/) · Marius Comper, 30 September 2026