Tsovinar Karapetyan, www.eritasard.am
Activists in Jermuk told Eritasard.am that the initiative began in November 2011 when public discourse over the exploitation of the mine was going on.
“The youth of Jermuk are definitely against the exploitation of the mine. I can certainly say that if we start taking serious steps, 80% of them will stand by our side. We are currently spreading information about the inadmissibility of all this. We will fight until the end,” says activist of the “Jermuk Won’t Become a Mine” initiative Anushavan Khachatryan.
The right to exploit the gold mine in Amulsar belongs to Lydian International, which is represented in Armenia by Geotim. Among the project investors are two influential financial institutes, including the International Financial Corporation (IFC) and the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD), which form a part of group of World Bank companies.
The youth aren’t even afraid of the fact that several of them will be unemployed, if the mine isn’t exploited. Anushavan assures that there is such an issue at hand, but the community has helped solve that problem. “The youth are ready to leave their jobs behind because there is alternative work to do. A new sanitarium is under construction, and local experts will be able to work at the mineral water factory to be expanded.
The Amulsar project’s influence zone includes the small villages of Gorayk, Kechut, Saravan, Saralanj and Gndevaz, but the sanitary city of Jermuk with a population of 6,000 located just 12 km away from the peak of Amulsar hasn’t been included in the zone.
The mine-exploiting company envisages extracting 70 tons of gold. If a gram of gold is found in a ton (figures according to Lydian International), there will be 70 million tons of waste in the area. This means that there will be 420 hectares of area buried under the piles after mine exploitation.
Experts also assure that exploition will hurt the quality of mineral waters as well-something that Jermuk takes pride in all around the world. There are 248 types of plants growing in Amulsar, of which 6 are registered in the Red Book of Armenia. There are 60 types of cattle, 12 species of reptiles, 2 species of amphibians and 5 species of fish.
In addition to the recent petition, discussions and conferences, the young activists have also produced a film called “This is our pride” with their own funding.
May 02, 2012 at 17:43