EcoLur
“Lydian International” Company has declared many times that Amulsar is a new mine which the company has been prospected since 2006 and detected “mining reserves complying to international standards.” According to Lydian, Amulsar reserves have been assessed as follows: 60 tons of gold – 0.77 grams in one ton of gold, 273 tons of silver – 3.6 grams in one ton of silver. Lydian has spent 42 million USD for the prospecting of Amulsar reserves as a new mine, for which the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) spent US $14.5 million and IFC (International Finance Corporation) - US $17.3 million.
Amulsar will extract only gold and silver.
And now we will present how specialists comment on this prospecting.
Hrachya Avagyan, Chief Specialist of RA NAS Economics Institute, Dr. in Geological and Mineral Sciences, writes in his book entitled “Ways and Prospects of Mining and Metallurgical Industries in the Republic of Armenia”: “… So-called Amulsar “gold mine”, which is, as a matter of fact, Amulsar section of Kaqavasar gold and polymetallic mine, has been separated from Kaqavasar artificially. Amulsar gold “mine”, besides gold, contains silver, arsenic, berilium, bismouth (low quantities of cadmium, cobalt, chromium, copper and iron (mainly connected with pyrite ore) gallium, nickel, lead, antimony, scandium, strontium (relatively low content), titanium, uranium (low content), vanadium, zinc and mercury) - page 260.”
Harutyun Movsisyan, Dr. in Geological Sciences, Associate Professor said during the meeting with CEE Bankwatch NetWork representatives, “According to the presented project (Amulsar) and the concluded contract, only gold and silver will be extracted in the mine. The project submitted to expertise should either have completely excluded the presence of other elements and naturally studies should have been carried out in this direction or submitted information about their possible presence. Naturally, if there are other elements, they should be extracted in heap leaching, if extraction is not ensured, they are classified as losses and these losses must be calculated under the classification in the law on nature management and nature preservation. It’s an open question, which is not presented in the project and the expertise didn’t pay attention to it. The heap leaching technology, which will be used, has undergone proper technological expertise, as the company mentioned, but there is no relevant act and we don’t know to what extent it’s close to the reality…”
November 11, 2015 at 16:28