EcoLur
Amulsar open pit mining project and the construction of a heap leach facility outlines the immediate trend to take the issue of Lake Sevan out of the project, as “EcoRight” NGO Chairman, lawyer Arthur Grigoryan said in his interview with EcoLur. “The project doesn’t say anything about Lake Sevan: it mentions Vorotan drainage basin, Arpa drainage basin, Darbin basin, but not Sevan drainage basin. When we asked the representative of the company having conducted studies whether it means that there will be no impact on Sevan, their reply was no, there will be no impact on Lake Sevan. By the way, their reply was as follows: they definitely changes the locations of the landfill site, but the problem was not only the landfill site, but the whole project starting from open pit mining stage finishing with wastes and heap leach plant,” A. Grigoryan said. Under him, the project is subject to additional reassessment and substantiation by the specialists, as there is real impact on Lake Sevan and this territory is the drainage basin of Lake Sevan. On August 25 during the public hearings on Amulsar project held in Gndevaz community in Vayots Dzor Region the lawyer asked a question about red-listed animal and plant species. “When a question was raised about red-listed animal and plant species, the reply was that about one month ago, in July, the Armenian Government has adopted a resolution, which enables transferring these plant species. If such a resolution exists, it’s obviously clear for me that the Government seeks not only to facilitate for the mining to bypass the legislative bans, but also seeks to facilitate particularly tis project so as to gradually eliminate the current problems within this project. Nothing was said about this fauna,” Arthur Grigoryan said. The third question raised by the lawyer referred to Gndevaz community, “Gndevaz villagers told us, here huge funds will be provided to buy villagers’ land areas and orchards – one tree over five years costs over 300,000 AMD. Some people own over 1000 trees… i.e. will these people receive about one million USD?” In reply to this question, 'Geoteam' CJSC General Director Hayk Aloyan said, 'last Friday I personally met with around 20 Gndevaz villagers, who own land areas in this particular area. Certainly our company has conducted studies in this area, which we intend to use as a heap leach area. That is, the specialists visited this area, studied and counted trees, their age, crop productivity, market price etc. Three independent groups have already carried out studies and provided a final pricelist, they separated crop as compensation together with the tree and individual compensation for land areas. Their figures match with each other. I will send the same pricelist to the government, where they, in their turn, will examine the compliance of our proposed price etc. In June the company discussed this situation with Gndevaz villagers, and we promised them we will feel proud of the proposal to be made to Gndevaz villagers. I am really proud that we have proposed this price and we don’t want any company or person to interfere into the process of obtaining these land areas.' “I can’t understand what the government has to do here. I can’t believe this company or any other mining company is willing to pay US $1 million to the villagers for his/her orchard and land area. Armenia hasn’t had such an experience. If such a transaction occurs, it’s absurd as here we have to understand why the company is willing to make such expenses to develop this mine with low concentration,” Arthur Grigoryan mentioned. The person owning largest orchards in Gndevaz community is Jermuk Mayor Vardan Hovhannisyan, who originally opposed to Amulsar mining project, nevertheless, now the Mayor is quite optimistic. “I will tell you three factors, both as a Jermuk Town resident and community head, and as a person owning the largest orchards in Gndevaz community. I was among the first people to climb up this mountain and I was against this project unless I examines and realized what was going on. At that time all Gndevaz villagers were against me. The project transferred to Gndevaz, half of the village is unhappy with this fact, the rest is happy…. that’s not the problem. We have such a negative feature that without starting the woks we say it’s bad, though we have the opportunity to stop the operation in the halfway. I have said it many times: I will be the first to oppose to this project, if this project hinders my community even insignificantly,” Jermuk Mayor Vardan Hovhannisyan said during the public hearings.
September 01, 2014 at 13:58