Roşia Montană, Roșia Montană, Alba County, Romaniai

Regional Level Types
Roşia Montană	Village
Roșia Montană	Commune
Alba County	County
Romania	Country

Ancient and modern gold mines around the village Roșia Montană (located about 4 km SW of Roşia Poieni). The ancient mines are located on Cârnic Mountain, with well-preserved Roman galleries. The mining started here more than 2000 years ago.

The old Hungarian names are Verespatak and Vöröspatak; the old German name is Goldbach ('Gold creek'). Roșia Abrudului and Roșia de Munte are older Romanian names.

A project by open-pit mining (by the Canadian investor Gabriel Resources) was abandoned in around 2007. In 2021 Roșia Montană became a World Heritage Area.

Breccia pipe/brecciated dyke, discordant veins in clusters.
Host rock: Dacite.

Alteration: adularization, sericitization, chloritization, argillization, silicification and pyritization.

The ore deposition at the Rosia Montana deposit evolved from an early Au-(Ag) low-sulfidation character to a late Ag-Te-(Ge-Au) intermediate-sulfidation character, and may be correlated with late magmatic pulses (Tamas et al., 2006).

No mines are currently active in Roşia Montanã. The Roşia Montană area has been mined for gold since the Copper Age (5300 to 1700 BC). During this age mining was entirely alluvial. This form of mining continued into the Bronze Age (3500 to 1200 BC) and then into the Early Iron Age (1200 to 550 BC). Roşia Montană quartz-vein lode gold mining is speculated, in literature, to have begun in the late Bronze Age using trench/pit techniques. In the Dacian Age (1st century AD) lode Gold mining began in earnest in Romania. Roşia Montană is the oldest permanent Roman mining settlement in Romania (about 1880 years old) then called “Alburnus Maior.” More accurately, according to Roman Wax Tablets found in the Cătălina Monuleşt gallery in the Coş Mine, the exact founding date was February 6, 131!

Numerous major mines have existed over the ages in the Roşia Montană area. Cârnic, Cetate, Cârnicel, Carpeni, Găuri, Zeus, Coş, Orlea, Ţarina, Piatra Corbului, Igre, Lety, Jig-Văidoaia, and Roşia Poieni (discovered in 1978) are all major mines within an area less than 5 km of the village of Roşia Montanã.
However, it is rare to see anything but Roşia Montanã (Verespatak) on any older label. That is the reason why everyone assumes that Roşia Montanã (Verespatak) is a mine and all specimens labeled Roşia Montanã (Verespatak) come from that mine. Major corrections are needed for Alba and Hunedoara Counties.

Geochronology

Mineralization age: Miocene : 12.78 ± 0.09 Ma to 12.71 ± 0.13 Ma

Important note: This table is based only on rock and mineral ages recorded on mindat.org for this locality and is not necessarily a complete representation of the geochronology, but does give an indication of possible mineralization events relevant to this locality. As more age information is added this table may expand in the future. A break in the table simply indicates a lack of data entered here, not necessarily a break in the geologic sequence. Grey background entries are from different, related, localities.

Geologic Time				Rocks, Minerals and Events
Phanerozoic
	Cenozoic
		Neogene
			Miocene	ⓘ Adularia (youngest age) 12.71 ± 0.13 Ma ⓘ Adularia (oldest age) 12.78 ± 0.09 Ma

Fossils

This region is too big or complex to display the fossil list, try looking at smaller subregions.

Other Databases

Wikipedia:	https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ro%C8%99ia_Montan%C4%83
Wikidata ID:	Q12148992

Localities in this Region

Other Regions, Features and Areas that Intersect

References