MegoGold Company Project in Meliq Village: “It's Early to Speak about New Tailing Dump Unless First Tailing Dump Recultivated” (Photos)

EcoLur

Meliq Village hasn't yet made a decision on the construction of a new tailing dump. 'It's early to speak about a new tailing dump, unless the first tailing dump is recultivated,' Said Meliq Village Head Hakob Mkrtchyan. The public hearings on the construction project of a new tailing dump for Megogold Company was held in Meliq Village on 30 October. Nevertheless, the villagers didn't know anything either about the project or the public hearings. Only after half an hour after the appointed time, about 20 people came to participate in the hearings and presented their problems concerning the company activities. An interesting fact: one of the participants, Karen, who had declared about the company owing him money, over 500,000 AMD as a salary, is at the same time the shareholder of American 'Global Gold Mining' Company. The certificate is issued for 250 USD. 'When the company's business was good, about 30 employees received such certificates. I still don't know, what I will gain, but I'm not going to sell it,' Karen said.

The main problem is that the company intends to take new territories from the village, but it hasn't recultivated old tailing dumps, which cause essential damage to the village.

One tailing dump is mentioned in the list of 19 tailing dumps known to the Ministry of Emergency States. The characteristics of the tailing dump are as follows: distance from Meliq Village – 2 km, projected volume – 90,000 cubic meters, fullness – 45,000 cubic meters. The second tailing dump is missing in the list.

EcoLur working group asked to help them to get familiar with the spot of new tailing dump construction and the state of the old tailing dump. Nevertheless, the official representative of the company Henrikh Mkrtchyan left and took with them the representative of Nature Protection Minister Laura Balayan and projector Hovik Nikaghosyan.

A local resident agreed to take us to the place.  Outwardly, the tailing dump complied with what the residents said about it during the hearings. Water flew out of one of them through the dug out canal. There were no dams or concrete fortifications. Unfortunately, there was nobody we could ask a question about what we had seen, while the workers having come to the spot after us just forces us out of the territory. “Go away, you don't have any right, this is our territory…”, they said. The explanations that the company is the organiser of the hearings and shouldn't hinder to examine the project on the spot didn't help.

The hearings were held in tense atmosphere. In near future you can watch the video by EcoLur, which shows the Q&A session between residents and Hovik Nikaghosyan and Henrikh Mkrtchyan.

November 01, 2012 at 15:29