ARMENPRESS. Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan has addressed the residents of Jermuk asking them to open the roads leading to the Amulsar gold mine.
He said that even if the roads are opened now constructions works will not commence there until April 2020.
“I am asking the residents of the town of Jermuk to open the roads leading to the Amulsar mine because you don’t have the necessity to close them, because you have a government which in the event of seeing a legitimate necessity to close these roads will go and close the roads with its tools and lawful authority,” the PM said during a live Facebook broadcast.
“My statement remains the same as during the last live broadcast, that at least for now we don’t have any legal grounds to ban the operations of the Amulsar mine. But understandably we can’t not take into account the concerns which exist among our society,” he added.
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Pashinyan said he has tasked the environmental inspection agency to start inspections at Amulsar to clarify certain issues raised by the Minister of Environment.
The Armenian PM explained the theoretical developments resulting from the inspection.
“Option one – there are no violations, everything is normal. Option two – there are violations and irregularities and they can be eliminated without project changes,” he said, adding that in this case a new EIA will not be required.
“Option number three – these violations and irregularities cannot be eliminated without a new project and if a new project is considered it means that a new EIA is considered,” the PM said, adding that in additional to the environmental inspection agency the Investigative Committee’s criminal investigation will have to give answers to certain other issues as well.
The PM said the government has the possibility to carry out daily monitoring to assess the impact of the work taking place in Amulsar mine. However, he noted that he has tasked the ministry of environment to acquire modern equipment for monitoring and the devices must be procured by April-May of 2020.
Pashinyan said they have asked Lydian to clarify if they were to be granted permission to resume operations when would they begin works at the mine and the company has pointed out the above-mentioned timeframe.
“If the roads leading to Amulsar were to be opened today, no construction will take place there at least until April 2020. But the closure of the road is creating serious problems for Armenia in terms of international economic image and rating, creating concrete chance for a drop in Armenia’s rating.
Pashinyan recalled the recent video-conference with ELARD – the company which conducted an environmental audit of the project – who said that eventually Lydian International bears responsibility for any action.
“The company Lydian itself must give or not give guarantees, assume certain obligations, as a result of which the government must decide to what extent it trusts these records,” he said.
The PM said that during the recent meeting with Lydian’s executives the company guaranteed on the highest level that its operations will not impact the environment at all.
“After this entire story Lydian comes and tells me during a meeting that “indeed, as I have mentioned in the EIA, I am obliging that I will operate this mine 100% safely”. What does this mean? This means that not a single liter of contaminated water will leak into the environment, the air quality will not change, groundwater will not be contaminated, surface waters will not get contaminated, no problems will emerge regarding the land and environment’s biodiversity,” the PM said.
Access to the Amulsar mine has been blocked by environmentalists for many months and the government is expected to announce its decision whether or not it will allow Lydian International to resume operations. ELARD, an international audit company, carried out an Environmental Impact Assessment study for the project, which in turn is under scrutiny.
Edited and translated by Stepan Kocharyan
