BUCHAREST (Romania), December 4 (SeeNews) - Canadian-based mining company Gabriel Resources Ltd. on Tuesday announced plans to scale back its Romanian gold mining project Rosia Montana as the Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) review process has been suspended.

Little further work on the development of the mine can be done until the Ministry of Environment reconvenes the Technical Advisory Committee (TAC) to complete the review of the project EIA, Gabriel Resources said in a statement."There is no point in continuing with engineering, procurement of long-lead-time equipment, and full staffing given that most of the permitting activities have been stopped," the company's CEO, Alan Hill, said in the statement. As a result, the company initiated today the legal procedure concerning staff retrenchment, by notifying the local union and concerned authorities about its intention to retrench a significant proportion of its staff. Overall, it is expected that approximately two-thirds of the 325 full-time jobs will be cut.The company has filed a lawsuit against the Ministry of Environment with the Bucharest Court of Appeal against the ministry's decision to suspend the EIA review process, which has been delaying the Rosia Montana project."Most disappointing of all is that we have reached the point where we can no longer employ people when we do not have work for them to do. As a result, we must let a lot of our staff go, as most of our activities have been stopped with the suspension of the EIA review process. Our effort and resources will be focused on getting the EIA back on track and getting this project permitted," Hill said.Gabriel Resources said it had spent more than $300 million (203 million euro) on the development of the Rosia Montana project so far. The Rosia Montana gold deposit is located in central Romania.Based on the exploration programme the deposit has a total measured and indicated resource of 14.6 million ounces of gold and 64.9 million ounces of silver in addition to an inferred resource of 1.2 million ounces of gold and 3.0 million ounces of silver.Gabriel Resources Ltd. owns 80% of the Rosia Montana gold project and the Romanian government holds a 19% stake.