At the meeting held on February 10 of RA Government, the executive approved RA draft law "On Making Amendments and Addenda to RA Soil Code" without reporting.
This draft law proposes to supplement the Code with a new Article 55.1, which provides for the extension of the soil management right on the basis of insurmountable force. Among a number of causes: fires, floods, earthquakes, hurricanes, or other natural disasters, such as explosions, war, terrorism, civil war, civil disobedience will be considered an insurmountable force, together with various manifestations of protests, as a result of which it was not possible to organize soil management at the mine.
Accordingly, the terms of the current soil management right will be extended for the maximum period of those circumstances. Modified projects or geological prospectings will not be subject to a new environmental safety and technical safety assessment; with this legislative initiative, the Armenian government is regressing from democratic values. Years of experience have shown that civil disobedience to soil management programs is aimed at human health, the protection of the rights to a healthy environment, and the protection of the living conditions of local people.
It is obvious that the legislative change is primarily related to Amulsar gold quartzite mine development project. The construction of this mine was stopped in 2018, when the local population closed the roads leading to the mine infrastructure.
The construction period of Amulsar mine was to last until June 1, 2021, with 9 years of mineral extraction and 5.5 years of mine closure. Now the company can be given about 4 years.
The amendment to the Code is in contradiction with the current RA Law on Environmental Impact Assessment and Expertise, which states in Article 20, Clause 7: "The expert opinion shall lose its validity if the implementation of the envisaged activity does not start within one year after the expert opinion is issued."
February 14, 2022 at 16:06