In June 2021, the soil management permit of Meghrasar gold mine in Syunik Region, issued to "At-Metals" LLC, will expire.
On January 26, 2021, "At-Metals" LLC submitted "Project for Re-equipment of Tashtun Experimental Gold Extraction Plant - Environmental Impact Assessment Report" to RA Environment Ministry for examination. The public hearing of the document took place online on February 2, with the participation of a small number of representatives of the company and Meghri Municipality.
As of May 21, 2021, there is no expert opinion on At-Metals’s project on the official website of RA Environment Ministry.
“At-Metals” LLC received the soil management permit for Meghrasar gold mine in 2014. The mine has been closed since 2015. According to the reports submitted by the company within the framework of the Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (EITI), the company did not operate the mine in 2016-2018, and in 2017 the company's production volume was 14,257 tons, out of which 1,0855 tons of gold ore was sold to “Tom & Mir” LLC, 9855 tons to "Kapan Mining and Processing Plant" CJSC.
In July 2019, in his letter to EcoLur Informational NGO, the director of At-Metals stated that no land category had been changed until July 2019, as part of the area allotted to the company coincided with the borders of Arevik National Park.
Under the decision of Head of Department of Investigation of Corruption-Related Crimes, Crimes against Property of RA Investigative Committee H. R. Rapyan on the closedown of the criminal proceedings dated on 30 November 2020, on the initiative of RA Ministry of Nature Protection, the borders of the national park were adjusted, as a result by decision N 731-N of the Government of the Republic of Armenia, the territory of "Arevik" National Park was reduced by 462.66 hectares on 02.07.2015. Due to that, the land plot of 38.84459 ha provided to "At-Metals" LLC by mountain allocation act L-514 appeared outside the borders of "Arevik" National Park.
That land of 38.84459 ha, as agricultural land, is included in the temporary land use scheme of Tashtun settlement of Meghri community in Syunik Region. Until March 2021, the category of these lands had not changed to the category of soil management lands, as Meghri Aldermen’s Council had voted against the change.
On March 23, 2021, Meghri Aldermen’s Council voted in favor of the decision to change the category of 38,84469 lands into a category of soil management lands, setting an annual rent of 4,824,511 AMD.
During their meeting with EcoLur, the residents of Tashtun settlement affected by Meghrasar mine said they were against the re-operation of the mine and the factory. “Chemical water will be released from the factory, the factory's waste will be dumped into the gorge, and then into the river. The animals will drink that water, you will use that milk, meat and yogurt. How do I know what effect it has on plants and vegetables? The trees are getting drier and drier. Who says anything to the people?" a Tashtun resident said.
The residents said that the promise of job creation in the case of the mine is artificial, as the high-paying company invites specialists, and the residents are hired mainly for low-paid, labor work. By the way, the number of employees in the company in 2016 was 16 people, in 2017 - 9 people, and in 2018 - 10 people. The residents responded: "I want to know how much radiation there is in this area, to measure air pollution, to make the companies' work more accountable, the company to be responsible for any issue, let it be cattle grazing or something else, to take all that into account, and not to pollute the area."
It should be noted that according to G.P. Aloyan's research work "Uranium-bearing of geological formations of Armenia", the Meghri fracture, where Meghrasar mine is located, is considered to be a rare metal-mineral uranium mine (Au-U-S/Fe type) (G.P. Aloyan, Yerevan, GEOID, 2010 pp. 63, 65).
Unlike Tashtun residents, Head of Organizational Department of Meghri Municipality, Vanik Sargsyan, told EcoLur that they would not mind mining by At Metals. "If they had said so before, we would have emphasized the seriousness of causing environmental problems. It is not that now we ignore the environment, we don’t say you can do whatever you want to. No, we will just have serious economic problems after 2020, and the operation of the mine will help the community, create jobs, at least a few families will benefit," he said.
The employee of the municipality also emphasized that no state approach has been shown to develop any alternative branch vs mining in the community. "They never came and said, let's consider the mining industry not the most sensible mean of land use, we will close the mine, do reclamation work, from tomorrow you can be engaged in agriculture for 20 years, for example, livestock, we buy all those products whatever you produce. When did they do anything to develop anything?" he said.
Vanik Sargsyan also mentioned that they realize that they do not have a long future in the mining industry, and from that point of view the community-mining company relations should be brought to another platform. "The government needs to do more monitoring. If the community is involved more, the community may the company you will not be working from tomorrow because you did not freeze money for reclamation to the dedicated fund. Now the community does not have that right," he said.
This material has been prepared within “Liability of Non-operating Mining Companies in EITI Process” project impletmened by EcoLur with the USAID support within the frames of “Engaged Citizenry for Responsible Governance” project implemented by Transparency International Anticorruption Center.
This article is made possible by the generous support of the American People through the United States Agency for International Development (USAID). The contents of this article are the sole responsibility of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of USAID or the United States Government.
May 24, 2021 at 16:51