EcoLur
“Environmental Academy” NGO Chairman, PhD in Chemical Sciences Greta Gabrielyan thinks the tailing dump in the centre of Armenia is a real catastrophe. She meant the tailing dumps where the gold recovery factory in Hrazdan intends to dump its wastes. The factory is not constructed yet, nevertheless, the project is displayed on the website of Nature Protection Ministry of Armenia. The list of objects lays down the tailing dump. “How can we speak about a tailing dump which will be located so close to Marmarik and Hrazdan Rivers?” They state there will be 101 people employed, meanwhile it is located on the junction, which is both river, and transportation and railway...” said Greta Gabrielyan and added such a junction results in anxiety about the further plans of the company which the project says nothing about.
According to the specialist, the main risk is that the project document doesn’t contain information about the final capacity of the tailing dump. It only says that a closed cycle of water circulation will be used. “This means that it may operate only with overflow. Taking into consideration that the soil in the territory assigned for a tailing dump consists of gravels and sand, one may expect that all the content will be filtered under the ground and will intoxicate the underlying layers,” G. Gabrielyan thinks so. The second emergency tailing dump designed for unforeseen situations, anthropogenic breakdowns etc is also missing.
Another risk the dust from processed ore that contains heavy metals. “These admixtures are characteristic to our polymetallic mines and when they are crushed they will turn into a real disaster for the whole region, including Hrazdan Town, Tsaghkadzor Resort, Aghavnadzor Children’s Sanatorium, all waters flowing across this territory, not already to mention Kaqavadzor Village which is located only 3 km far away.” Under the project, dust concentration must not exceed the maximum permissible concentration, but this is not ordinary dust which ascends then settles down. This dust contains crushed toxic admixtures which will be accumulated into environment from year to year. Where this dust will disappear? Greta Gabrielyan only has one answer – heavy metals in the form of dust particles will pollute the soil and water.
Under her, it is unclear how the ore will be delivered, “Here we have resort and forest zones,” she added.
For our part it should be mentioned most Armenian resorts are located in the regions of perspective polymetallic mines. Instead of sharing who gold or molybdenum will belong to, it would be better to calculate what kind of damages these activities will cause to resorts, where the same people divide territories and investment their capital into real estate. This is not even higher mathematics, but simple arithmetic.
July 01, 2011 at 12:52