Băiţa locality lies in the north of Hunedoara county, at the base of Metaliferi Mountains, 25 km distant from Deva city and 24 km distant from Brad town. Băiţa commune covers 11,139 ha and includes 11 villages, totalling 3,582 inhabitants. The specific activities in the area are animal farming and agriculture. The mining area is located outside the built-up area of Barbura village, Băiţa commune, on a land with forest vegetation, pastures and meadow lands under state ownership. The exploration area lies within the NATURA 2000 site ROSPA 0132 - Special Avifauna Protection Area Metaliferi Mountains. The site is characterised by two major groups of habitat: open lands and forests. According to the analysis performed by professors of the Academy for Economic Studies in Bucharest, Gabriel Resources purchased in 1999 two projects, Bolcana and Băiţa-Crăciuneşti, holding thus 6 projects in the Golden Quadrilateral of Romania at that time: Rosia Montana, Bucium, Certej, Zlatna, Baita, Craciunesti, Bolcana. The same year Deva Gold was awarded the exploration license as operator of the Băiţa-Crăciuneşti project. In February 2000, Gabriel announced the company restructuring and the splitting of the existing project portfolio to two separate companies, Gabriel Resources and European Goldfields. The latter was allocated the Certej, Zlatna, Bolcana and Băiţa-Crăciuneşti projects. |