EcoLur
The environmental NGOs unified as SOS Teghut start collecting signatures for a petition to the VTB Bank to stop crediting the Teghut project under the agreement with Armenian Copper Programme (ACP).
In particular, the petition says that ACP owns a copper-smeltery in Alaverdi. An unbearable ecological situation has been created in the town due to the company's failure to observe the ecological norms stipulated by the law. As a result of the plant's work, the admissible standards of the toxic substances waste have been exceeded many times. ACP violated the commitments envisaged in the agreement with the Armenian Government which provided the company with tax remissions. The term of the tax remissions expired on 1 Jan 2009, but ACP failed to carry out its commitments regarding the waste of toxic substances.
Secondly, Strathcona company (Canada) assessed the ore mining expediency in Teghut in 2001. On the basis of the assessments, it came to the conclusion that the use of the given copper-molybdenum deposit may be economically profitable only in case of using the capacity of the copper-smeltery owned by ACP. However, long before the global financial-economic crisis, ACP announced its intention to close the enterprise due to the inexpedience of using the raw materials of Teghut deposit. ACP intends to export the whole concentrate received.
Thirdly, ACP provided the government with a report on assessing the ecological damage to be caused by implementation of the project, however, according to the environmental NGOs' assessments, ACP gave an undervalued index of the possible damage.
The local population suffers a shortage of drinking and irrigation water already now. Upon completion of extraction of the raw materials, the residents of the populated areas near the mine and tailing dumps will have to leave this territory. The destructive ecological consequences of the Teghut project were also mentioned by the Canadian company Strathcona. The Government took a decision on development of the deposit on the basis of the ACP's report approved by the Armenian Environment Ministry.
Fourthly, as the environmental NGOs think that the Government violated a number of active environment laws and international conventions, they are going to file a claim against the Government and prove the illegality of its decisions ь1278 and ь1279 dated 1 Nov 2007 which allowed the implementation of the project on developing the Teghut copper-molybdenum deposit. "We suggest abstaining from financing the Teghut project until the results of independent assessment of international experts are received and the wide public approves them",- the petition says.
To note, EcoLur information NGO has already joined the petition.
April 03, 2009