On January 20, 2021, the second public hearings were held in Katnaghbyur settlement in Stepanavan Community on the request for preliminary environmental impact assessment of geological prospecting within the limits of gems and gold ores of Arjidzor mineral field in Lori Region.
The representative of "Av Mining" LLC mentioned what works will be carried out within the framework of the project. "Drilling will be carried out manually, there will be no wells. They will be sampled and then closed. There are no water streams, there will be no emissions, there will be no pollution in any way," he mentioned.
The representative of the company assured that in case of opening the mine, jobs will be created in the village, the country will get rich.
Some of the residents attending the public hearing mentioned that they were in favor of the mine work from that point of view․ In response to the dangers of mining, other residents raised their voices. "We put the purity of ecology or human health on the same scales as jobs ․․․What about the development of tourism?" "What does tourism give us?", another resident countered. In his turn, the representative of the company justified that their activity is 8 km away from the village, that it cannot harm the village in any way.
"What if you pollute Dzoraget? You cannot prove that you will not pollute the river. If there is a mine and a river nearby, it is impossible for the river not to be polluted," another resident said.
At the end of the public hearing, the position of the attendees towards carrying out mining activities in the village was ambiguous. After the hearings, the residents who opposed the project wrote a letter expressing their negative opinion, which they plan to submit to Environment Ministry, “․․․ Given the fact that we want to preserve our settlement as an ecologically clean agricultural settlement, which should have safe prospects for the development of agriculture and tourism, as well as the arguments brought by the representative of "AV Mining" were not convincing, well-founded and we are against the implementation of geological prospecting in the administrative area of the settlement, as well as mining operations for which we are signing below.”
January 20, 2022 at 18:59