412 For and 1 Against: Meghradzor Villagers Support New Project of Meghradzor Gold Dressing Plant

On February 11 the public hearings for the new project of Meghradzor gold dressing plant were held in Meghradzor community, Kotayk Region. The project had been submitted by “Meghradzor Gold” LLC. Meghradzor Village Head Karlen Hovhannisyan mentioned that the company had informed them about the project beforehand and they held a signature collection from 26 August to 28 August to find out whether or not the villagers would support the project. Under the list submitted by Karlen Hovhannisian, 412 villagers support it, and only one villager is against. Meghradzor village has 2600 residents: under the village head, many of the villagers had left abroad to earn living, that’s why they were not able to participate in the signature collection.

The project author “Akunq-Firma” LLC Director Hovhannes Nikoghosyan presented the few participants the new project, which proposes to extract gold with gravitation and flotation methods. Annually 120,000 tons of ore will be processed for gold extraction, while generated tails will be transferred and stored in Meghradzor mine in the empty places of mine.

During the hearings “Meghradzor Gold” Company Director Vardan Margaryan mentioned that 80% of the total number of employees will be recruited from the community and they will monthly provide 4 million AMD to the community budget besides creating working places to solve social problems.