EcoLur
The representative of MegoGold Company Henrikh Mkrtchyan proposed Meliq villagers to construct a reservoir on the waste deposit instead of reclaiming. This proposal was made in the course of public hearings on 30 November on the project of developing a new tailing dump, the third one. Reminder: MegoGold Company deals with the mining and extraction of gold from Tukhmanuk gold mine, which is located 7-8 km far from the village, while the plant and the tailing dump are located in the administrative territory of the village, in a distance of 700-900 meters.
We offer a short video for your attention shot during the public hearings where Henrikh Mkrtchyan’s proposal was voiced.
“Developer Hovik Nikaghosyan: The new tailing dumps will be constructed 800 meters above the village and will occupy 1.53 ha, the sanitary zone is 300 m, no dust and emissions. The old tailing dumps, which won’t be used, are subject to reclaiming.
Meliq Villager: They should be closed down right now, it’s already 3-4 years since they are left unclosed.
O. Nikaghosyan: Demand!
Villagers: The tailing dump is constructed directly on our water pipeline and they are destructed. We have several water pipelines, and what of the new tailing dump destructs them?
O. Nikaghosyan: We should follow up all this. You are the owners of this water and earth, and not the plant. We shouldn’t allow any destruction to take place. When you see dust or water, just call the inspection. They will come and check on the spot...
Villagers: We have called them so many times, we have so many areas dried out, we lost the harvest of potatoes and cabbage…
O. Nikaghosyan: And what and the inspection didn’t arrive at the spot?
Villagers: Yes, they didn’t arrive. The water (from the factory) didn’t go to the tailing dump, but directly flew in our direction. All the harvest dried up because of the substances and sand it contained...The salaries hadn’t been paid to many people, we blocked the road and only then we received our salaries, but not completely…
Henrikh Mkhitaryan: When we started developing Tukhmanuk, we thought the reserves makes up 1 million tons, but then the reserves turned out to be 27 million tons. We expanded the plant. At first there were 16 grams of gold per ton, now it’s only 5-6 grams. Now the ratio in the tailing dump makes up 1 gram per ton. Now it’s our reserve, how should be reclaimed? The gold should be extracted from there…If you have any complaints, please submit in writing…
Hovhannes Asatryan-villager: My meadows and pastures.., we didn’t pay a penny, but destroyed everything and didn’t even ask for…
Village Head Hakob Mkrtchyan: Unless the first tailing dump is reclaimed, you don’t have any right to construct the second.
O. Nikaghosyan: If the first tailing dump is rich, the second is already not.
G. Mkrtchyan: there is 0.5 gram of gold.
O. Nikaghosyan: You may take the samples and determine. If the content is less than 0.2-0.3 gram per ton, we will close it down. I know your problems and I know how the company operates. There are difficulties: salary is not paid, we didn’t manage to do something or help. But now you should decide whether or not the company will operate in your territory. They want to expand the mine and the plant, if you don’t want, say no and there will be no positive opinion. Everything will be closed down. If you say yes, tell it.
Village Head H. Mkrtchyan: Under the contract, if you have finished extracting gold, why not to carry out reclaiming and why you want to take new territories? You leased the territory and you have to reclaim the land areas after the accomplishment of the works and to return the land areas to the community in this way for us to be able to use them again as pastures. You know well that our households can’t progress, just the opposite, they will digress.
G. Mkrtchyan: You are right, we have such a law that new territories are allotted when old territories are reclaimed and returned. But we have 30 years for the mine development and while the development is in progress, we can’t destroy on one side and to reclaim on the other side. What we can do is to fill the mine with water from the brooks flowing nearby and to breed fish there. We have such a program and a reservoir will be there.
It should be noted that the project doesn’t mention that the tails and processed wastes contain toxic elements of first-class risk. The project mentions that the composition of tails contain the following substances: SiO2 – 46,23%; AL2O3 – 10,81%; MgO – 5,17% ; TiO2 – 0,82 %; CaO – 6,41%; MnO – 0,15%; Fe2O3 – 6,4%; FeO -3,62%. But according to the scientific article by Sh. Khachatryan “Geochemical Characteristics of Tukhmanuk Gold Mine (Aragatsotn Region)” published in “Proc of Yerevan State University, 3 (223), 2010) journal, such elements as “copper, zinc, lead, arsenic, bismuth, selenium, tellurium, cadmium are dumped into the wastes and the tailing dump”. The studies in this work were carried out with the help of atomic absorption analysis and other analytical methods. The results of the analysis are summed up in the table.
November 07, 2012 at 13:02