Doctor in Geological Sciences, Director of Ecological-Noosphere Research Center Armen Saghatelyan made important observations about mining in an interview to 1in.am website. He particularly mentioned that by permitting exploitation of gold mine in Amulsar Armenian government has violated all laws in this way threatening the lake Sevan. The exploitation of this mine will result in decay of Vorotan-Arpa-Sevan tunnel and after that the dangerous reactive waters will flow to the lake Sevan.
He also mentioned that our future is threatened since we have no national sustainable strategy, while all discussions of the Ministries about green economy are just bluff and pretence. “In Russian there is this word – авось (perhaps, in a hit-or-miss fashion). So all our decisions and actions today are in this manner”, Armen Saghatelyan added.
More on this and other issues in the video.
We would also like to remind that Amulsar gold mine is located on the border between Vayots Dzor and Syunik, where the catchment of water from Arpa and Vorotan rivers is located. It is 7 km away from Jermuk and is 2800-3000 meters above sea level. “Lydian International” company with unknown origins is registered in one of the UK’s offshore zones – Jersey island. The plan is to process 10 million tonnes of ore annually by using sodium cyanide just 1000 meters away from Arpa river and Gndevaz village.
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Despite the negative opinion of all of independent specialists, environmental organizations and most of the residents of Jermuk and Gndevaz, the Armenian government has permitted the realization of this disastrous project which poses unmanageable risks not only for the natural environment of the pools of Arpa and Vorotan rivers but also the lake Sevan.
P.S. Here you can get acquainted with some of the opinions, analysis, articles and videos by experts on gold mining in Amulsar.
Pan-Armenian Environmental Front (PAEF) civil initiative
