Not solely the damages of Amulsar gold mine exploitation are flagrant, but apparent illegal operations are in place along with it, informed economist Tatul Manaseryan. “The company which has given its reports on Amulsar should have also presented professional researches. People have honestly promised that they have not done anything, moreover, they demand 405.000 USD to merely find it necessary to make biochemical examinations. It appears that they have received the permission to exploit the mine without conducting precise examinations.”
Lydian International Limited company registered within the offshore zone, which has been exploiting the mine since 2005 till presently, has altered the project at least 5 times, has reassessed the volume of extracted reserves for numeral times, informs Levon Galstyan, the member of the Armenian Environmental Front.: “From the beginning, gold reserves amounted to 16.5 tons, then it became 54 tons, afterwards 73 and now we speak of 100 tons. All this chain is a row of manipulations which will bring us to a danger.”
As stated by the environmentalist, they have examined the documents of the company and revealed that the company does not have experience in implementing suchlike projects, their sole project is Amulsar project, which is a testing ground to them. The government of Armenia, basically, not having assessment mechanisms, has not conducted any actual assessment and has made a decision without it. “If Armenia conducts examinations via environmental damage assessment mechanisms, then except for Kajaran mines, the rest will not be exploited inasmuch as it will be proven that they are not economically beneficial as they cause an environmental damage.”
