"Assat" LLC wants to extend the terms of the permit and contract for soil management of Qaraberd gold mine in Lori Region, Armenia, from 2024 to 2032.
The company has submitted to RA Environment Ministry an application for preliminary assessment of the impact on the environment for the extension of the term of the Central site of Qaraberd gold mine. The public hearings were held on October 5, 2023, in Qaraberd settlement.
Qaraberd gold mine occupies an area of 20.3 hectares. It is intended to be processed in two stages” in opencast and underground manner.
The annual productivity of the underground mine makes up 30,000 tons, the open pit mine - 12,500 tons. The total volume of ore in the open pit of mineral bodies N1 and N3 makes up 13389.6 cubic meters, the amount of gold - 2013.4 kg, and the amount of silver - 362.2 kg.
The total area of land to be restored will be about 2.6 hectares, the cost of reclamation of which is estimated at 2.403 thousand AMD in the aproject.
Yurik Shavelyan, Administrative Head of Qaraberd settlement, told EcoLur that the local population expressed a positive opinion during the public hearings. He mentioned that they received support from the company in the past, and now they expect some projects.
Reminder: in September 2022, specialists from "Arnika", jointly with Armenian partner "Centre for Community Mobilization and Support" and "EcoLur" information NGOs, worked in the village of Karaberd and collected soil and river sediment, hair and urine samples from local residents to study the impacts of the Karaberd gold mine on health and environment.
The samples were taken to the certified laboratory in Ústí nad Labem, Czech Republic, where the concentration of heavy metals in the test samples was analyzed by certified methods, in particular the concentration of arsenic (As), cadmium (Cd), chromium (Cr), copper (Cu ), iron (Fe), molybdenum (Mo), nickel (Ni), lead (Pb), vanadium (V), zinc (Zn).
The preliminary results of the analyzes show that the soil located near the Karaberd mine (distance from the mine 150 m) has a significantly higher concentration of heavy metals compared to clean soils and agricultural soils of the Karaberd settlement, including the area of the Kyokhvakhlu residential district.
A high concentration of heavy metals was also found in the agricultural lands of Karaberd, in many cases exceeding the indicators intended for the soil.
Particular attention should be paid to such polluting elements as arsenic, the concentration of which in the test samples exceeds the norm by 2-2.5 times, and lead, the concentration of which exceeds the norm by 2-10 times.
Detailed results of analyzes of all test samples will be presented by Arnika and its partners after the completion of the entire study.
"Assat" LLC was founded in 1999. According to the latest declaration of the State Register of Legal Entities Justice Ministry regarding Real Beneficiaries on March 22, 2023, the company has 4 real owners. The first three are Czech citizens Daniel Trnovets, Radka Krcmazorva and Pavel Lukes with a 24 percent share each. The fourth is RA citizen Mher Poghosyan with a 20 percent share. The owner of the remaining 8 percent share has not been revealed.
October 06, 2023 at 15:59