Pan-Armenian Environmental Front
The people interested in the ecological problems in Armenia once again got convinced that the environmental expertise in our country doesn’t serve its objectives at all and only automatically approves political decisions on adopting this or that project. Another typical example was the positive opinion of the environmental impact assessment issued by Nature Protection Ministry on 17 October to Amulsar mining project submitted by Lydian International/Geoteam CJSC. The Ministry experts conducted not the professional analysis and assessment of the ecological hazards of this wide-scale and disastrous project, but it studied the submitted documents and drew up a summary in the form of ten-page-long expert opinion, which doesn’t talk sense for the public.
Sodium cyanide (NACN) is an extremely strong and fast toxic substance, which causes a painful death in case it penetrates into human organism within 2-4 hours.
Geoteam CJSC owned by offshore Lydian International Limited Company plans to extract gold with this very toxic substance, which is only in a distance of 1 km far from the Arpa River supplying water to Vayots Dzor Region, which it is located in a distance of 1.2 and 7.6 km from the nearest settlements – Gndevaz Village and Jermuk resort town, respectively.
This heap leaching method hides serious primary and secondary risks, which are, in many cases, uncontrollable and unmanageable.
December 11, 2014 at 16:16