On March 13, 2026, the Aldermen’s Council of Ararat community granted preliminary consent for the Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) of the project submitted by “GPM Gold” LLC on the reprocessing of tailings from Ararat Gold Recovery Plant and the construction of a new tailings storage cell. Eleven members of the Council voted in favor of the decision. There were no votes against or abstentions.
The ground for the Council’s decision was the protocol of the first phase of the public hearing held by “GPM Gold” LLC on February 27, 2026, at the session hall of the Ararat City Culture and Arts Center.
It should be noted that the project had received positive opinions from the Standing Committee on Legal, Social, Healthcare, Guardianship and Trusteeship Issues of Ararat Council on March 12, as well as from Standing Committee on Urban Development, Land Use, Agriculture and Environmental Protection.
According to the minutes of the public hearing, the meeting was attended by Ararat Community Head Aslan Avetisyan, Deputy Community Heads Karen Kendrijyan and Armen Baghdasaryan, Chief of Staff Artur Musikyan, representatives of “GPM Gold”, Director of the project design company “Akunk Firma” LLC Hovhannes Nikoghosyan, employees of the Ararat Municipality, members of Aldermen’s Council, representatives of non-governmental organizations, environmentalists, journalists, doctors, residents, and others.
Hovhannes Nikoghosyan stated that the new tailings cell will be constructed within the existing tailings storage facility area. “…It will be located away from irrigation canals. The dam is planned to be constructed from tailings that do not contain gold, with a total height of 20 meters. The site will be prepared in advance, and a drainage system will be installed to protect groundwater. A sand layer will be placed over the tailings, followed by a geomembrane. Gold-bearing tailings will be transported to the slurry preparation section, diluted to 50 percent, and then pumped to the processing plant. This project will enable a tailings reprocessing capacity of 1.5 million tons per year, allow the placement of about 9 million tons of tailings, and ensure 5–6 years of operation,” he noted.
Community Head Aslan Avetisyan raised the issue of the strength of the dam, to which Hovhannes Nikoghosyan responded that the tailings will be deposited in layers of 2.5 meters, with each layer compacted before the next layer is placed. “A stability assessment has been carried out. Tailings samples were taken and the necessary analyses were conducted,” he stated.
March 18, 2026 at 14:34