EcoLur
On 28 October, at 16:00, the public hearings for the specialized opinion of the competent people, project affected community head’s opinion on Meghrasar gold mining project submitted by “AT Metals” LLC will be held at 23/100 Sundukyan Street, Yerevan.
“EcoLur” Informational NGO has sent its opinion to Nature Protection Ministry, which says,
“The Nature Protection Ministry must issue a negative opinion to the Meghrasar gold mining project submitted by “AT Metals” LLC. The project doesn’t say a word that 60% of the mine is located in the area of “Arevik” National Park. The geoprospecting area of the mine accounts for 320.8 ha, out of which 186.4 ha is in the area of “Arevik” National Park, which contradicts to the requirements of RA Law “On Specially Protected Areas of Nature”, “On Flora”, “On Fauna” and RA Code on Subsoil. The project doesn’t say anything about possible presence of the uranium in the mine and radiation risks. But the article authored by G.P. Aloyan and entitled “Uranium Capacity and Geological Formations of Armenia” says, “The characteristic geotype of Megri open pit is Semizbai uranium mine in Kazakhstan…The aforementioned material and outcomes of special metallurgical experiments taking into consideration literature and library materials enable us considering the hole Megri open pit together with its underlaying granitoids of Meghri pluton as a perspective for gold-uranium-rare-metalllic ore grade mineralization with huge potential of a large mine of Au-U-S(Fe) type. (pp. 63-65, G.P. Aloyan, Yerevan, GEOID, 2010).”
The mine will be developed 305 days a year and explosion works will be carried out each day emitting harmful substances into environment. Under the project, in case of 50,000 tons per year production capacity, the total amount of emission will make up 252,687 tons per year, out of which 82.15 tons will result from explosion works. Like in other mining projects, dust contains toxic substances and heavy metals, which is not mentioned, though these very substances cause irreversible damage to environment – water resources, soil and human health.
The mine is located in a 9-magnitude seismic zone, but the project doesn’t mention any measures to be taken in case of a quake to minimize damage and to allot funds for these measures.
The project doesn’t assess mining impact risks either on flora, or fauna, or Meghri River.
October 24, 2014 at 14:46