Hakob Sanasaryan, Head of the “Union of Greens of Armenia” NGO voices a concern, that the use of certain chemicals for gold mining in Amulsar is extremely harmful to the environment and human health.
The environmentalist presented their report on the topic of “The situation in Amoulsar”, according to which the total weight of the Amulsar ore is 89.4 million tons, and by the way, only 87 percent of gold is possible to extract from 73.7 tons of ore, which is 63.2 tons. “Only 6.2 percent or 18 tonnes of silver can be extracted from 294 tonnes of ore, the total value of 63.2 tons of gold and 18 tons of silver will be only 2.56 billion dollars. The total volume of rigid waste from the third and first class metals will amount to 464 million tons. Thus, the income of the state budget will make 12.5 billion dollars.
Throughout the whole implementation process of the project, the company plans to transfer 485 million dollars to the state budget, in the form of taxes and payments for the use of these substrates”.
According to Hakob Sanasaryan, during the implementation of this project, it is envisaged to pay 230 million dollars to the mine workers, while during the exploitation of the quarries, this project will increase export incomes on an average of 285 million dollars annually.
According to the speaker, about 1300 vacancies will be created during the construction works. “Amulsar” project plans to make an investment of 5 billion 262 million dollars within 11 years. The area on which the project is to be implemented is 1805.3 hectares, which includes green areas. Besides, 279 hectares of land can be covered with construction and other dust, which will lead to the pollution of the environment and the flora”.
Arpine SIMONYAN
