- Do you want to know where toxic metals, semi-metals and harmful nanomaterials come from, that can end up in food products sold in the European Union?
- Have you ever seen a radioactive brook? Or a river whose water is acidic and dark red from toxic metals dissolved in it, or as alkaline as an old laundry? Have you walked in spooky abandoned mines and tailings ponds?
- Would you visit the most destructive mine in Europe, which actively pollutes a vast area and several rivers? Would you even express your opinion in front of the company’s headquarters?
- Would you like to admire the overhigh mining dams, whose overtopping would cause catastrophic destruction?
- Would you like to see the difference between reality and the communication from the Romanian authorities?
- Would you like to be horrified at the sight of rivers whose banks are covered in thick plastic rubbish?
Excursions of the Transylvanian Disaster Tours are a great opportunity to gain unforgettable experiences of Europe’s most polluted rivers, the cynicism of the Romanian authorities and the negligence and ostrich policy of the European authorities. The consequences of this will be felt in the coming decades, and not only in the regions directly affected.
Our service includes a lecture on the characteristics of the site, the type of pollution and its detrimental effects, rock collection, pH measurement, microscopy, demonstration of pollution by chemical reactions, and spectacular metal extraction by electrolysis from heavily polluted rivers.
Organizing
The use of protective equipment (helmets, knee, elbow and wrist protectors, rubber boots and other protective equipment where appropriate) is compulsory on the tours. The maximum number of participants is 20 (45 if an assistant is also hired). Adults may participate in our activities at their own risk and children over years of age only under parental supervision. Drinking from rivers, lakes and wells in polluted regions and eating locally produced food is strictly forbidden. Failure to comply with the instructions of the tour leader may result in the tour being interrupted. Organising must start two weeks before the tour.
Guide fee
150 EUR/day (gross fee, invoiced by Fibervar LLC)
We can help you to book accommodation or hire a bus if required. The guide fee includes all organisational costs. Our service includes a lecture of 15-30 minutes and demonstration experiments.
By default, tours start and return from Cluj. The tours can last several days. The tour leader will travel with the participants’ means of transport and, in the case of multi-day tours, will stay at the participants’ expense.
The cost of choosing a different departure or arrival location varies between €70 and €100, depending on the distance from Cluj.
Assistance fee (on request) costs 100 EUR/day, on the same conditions as the tour guide.
10% discount to
- EU environmental officials to confront them with the results of their ostrich policy
- Romanian “environmental” officials to stop lying
- the leaders of the Hungarian National Waterways Inspectorate (OVF) and the Centre for Ecological Research (ÖK), who who are doing nothing to stop the destruction of the river Tisza
15% discount for
the Minister of Environment Barna Tánczos, state secretary Róbert Szép, and their team
the heads of the Rowater institution responsible for Romanian waters, in particular Mr. Gabriel Francisc Știka and Mr. László Barabás
the leaders of the Ministry of Economy, responsible for the closed mines in Romania, and of the company Conversmin, which is part of the Ministry
the management of the most polluting mine in Europe, the company Cuprimin (Roșia Poieni).
… who are also doing nothing to remedy the situation
Contact
dr. Peter Hantz
Spoken languages:
English, German, Romanian, Hungarian
Suggested tours
Geamăna – Horrorlake
(1 day, ca. March – ca. November)
A visit to a valley flooded with toxic sludge, from which a church tower juts out – this is all that remained of the village that once stood in the valley. Walk along the blue and red branches of the lake, explaining the colours. Hike through the mine sludges, along the heavily polluted acidic streams that flow into the red part of the lake. Observing the parody called water purification. A visit to the Baia de Arieș, where the sludge of the mine river contains 10,000 times the legal limit of arsenic. A tour of the floodplain of the Arieș River, heavily polluted with plastic waste.
Izbita and Roșia Montana
(1 day, all year)
A walk through the picturesque Izbita Valley, where every hundred metres you will find an abandoned gold mine. Hikes along polluted, acidic forest streams. Tour along the banks of the Abrud River, heavily polluted with plastic waste. Visiting the headquarters of the environmentally destructive Cuprumin mining company in Abrud, and expressing your views if appropriate.
A walk in the village of Roșia Montana, a World Heritage Site with a rich architecture threatened with destruction. Visit to the source of the heavily polluted mine river. Excursion along the edge of the open-cast mine. Optional: visit to the Roman mines with a local guide.
The Turț mining area and surroundings of Baia Mare
(1-2 days, all year round)
A visit to the Ghezure mine in the Turț mining district, where polluted acidic water flows into the Turt stream because the pipes leading to the purification plant have been stolen. Collecting rocks along the road. A walk at the Peniger mine, possibly a short tour of the mine (fishing boots are compulsory as well as helmets). A visit to the purification station next to the mine, one of the few well-operated ones in Romania.
A walk along the red, acidic, heavily polluted Ilba-Handal river, which directly pollutes the river Someș. A hike along the red, acidic and heavily contaminated Baița river, which polluted the Lăpuș and Someș rivers in 2019. Here, water purification is now mimicked by a worker shovelling lime into the mine brook.
A walk through the haunted Bozinta reservoirs that destroyed the Tisza River in 2000.
Baia Borșa
(1-2 days, approx. May-November)
A tour through the picturesque valleys of the Chisla River side-streams, with small, closed mines and colourful, contaminated brooks. In summer, visit of the snow patches. Collecting rocks along the streams. Hiking to the Gura Băii mining site and its polluted mine rivers. Excursion to the red-coloured river with polluted water of the former mine tailing pond.
Around Brad
(1 day, all year)
Visit to the Gold Museum. Excursion to the abandoned mine and its red, polluted stream near Gura Barza. Walk in the open-cast Hubanic mine, collecting rocks from the roadside. Viewing the chemical reaction of a heavily polluted, acidic but apparently clean mine stream and a clean mountain stream confluence, depositing toxic white precipitation for tens of kilometres.
Baita-Plai Uranium Mine
(½-1 day, shortened visit, adults only, pregnant women excluded!)
Visit to the entrance of the Avram Iancu mine and the source of the Crișul Negru river. Measuring the radioactivity of the water with a Geiger-Müller counter. Approach to the radiating tailings pile, if applicable. Collection of uranium ore from the roadside.
Zlatna and its surroundings
(1 day, all year)
Visit to the Rinel Valley mercury mine and processing plant (use of rubber gloves is compulsory, do not touch the buildings covered with mercury compounds or the green plants along the stream, containing mercury levels up to 70 times the admitted limit).
Visits to heavily contaminated, acidic Hannes mine river. Optional visits to other local gold mines (e.g. Albini).
Hargita Bath and/or Büdösfürdő
(1-2 days, all year round)
Hike in the abandoned Hargita Bath kaolinite mine tailings and along the heavily polluted, acidic, red-coloured Tolvajos river. Hike to the abandoned mercury mines of Büdösfürdő in a picturesque pine forest. Visit of natural curiosities (carbon dioxide mofettas, mineral water springs, Lucs peat bog, post-volcanic phenomena).
Certejul de Sus
(1-2 days, all year round)
Visit to the abandoned mines and quarries in the south-western corner of the Golden Quadrangle in Transylvania. Walk towards the open-cast gold mine, following the line of heavily contaminated mine workings. Rock collecting along the way. Visit to the abandoned mine site in the village and the lake belonging to the mine, as well as the red-coloured Csertés River, which directly pollutes the Mureș River. The breaking of the dam of the mine pond near the village in 1971 caused a disaster with many fatalities.
Digression: the upper part of the river Sajó/Slana in Slovakia
(2 days from Cluj, 1 day from Miskolc or Kosice/Kassa)
In the early of 2022, the Slana/Sajó River was severely polluted, with a section destroyed and the streambed covered by red, toxic precipitate. Following a 12,000-signature initiative and a proposal by the Slovak President, a state of emergency was declared in the district of Roznjov/Rozsnyó. The tour will include a visit to the red-painted section of the river and the entrance to the Siderit mine, from where water containing toxic metals and semi-metals is flowing into the river.
With a bit of luck, you might also catch a glimpse of the wolf-dog guarding the mine, called Maya von Aveluna Ovena da Huor. We will also demonstrate the contamination of mine water with a precipitation chemical reaction. Next to the Gombaszög/Gombaszek open pit, you can collect rocks containing iron.
