In 2000, a major environmental disaster occurred which hardly made the headlines internationally and except for those involved in the gold recycling and refining business, it made little impression on the world outside of Romania where the incident occurred. During the night of January 30th, a dam gave way and flooded the valley below. The water brought with it well over 100,000 cubic meters of heavily contaminated water laden with 120 tons of cyanide delivered directly into the Romanian river network.