EcoLur
If there was environmental fee designed for the tailing dumps, the Armenian budget will be annually supplemented by US $ 100 million, as Ruben Movsesyan, Head of YSU “Sustainable Development Centre” and Head of Chair of Prospecting and Exploration of Mineral Deposits of the Faculty of Geography and Geology of YSU, said at the discussion held at YSU on 18 November.
“Usually filtered water leaks from tailing dumps, but this water contains heavy elements and toxic substances. But we haven’t seen any material on the water leaking from any tailing dump. Approximately we can say what kind of toxic substances they contain, but we don’t know their amount etc. Running cadaster of wastes shall be conducted.We shall know the extent of the toxic substances in these wastes, the wastes shall have passports and classified, while fees shall be paid according to classes. Some estimates show that annually around US $ 100 million escape the state budget, as the waste neutralizes, but it occupies area and is hazardous, while fees are not paid for the reason of being a technological mine,” Ruben Movsesyan says.
Armenia has 19 tailing dumps. Scientific work “Priority Issues of Tailing Dumps in the Republic of Armenia” says the tailing dumps in Armenia occupy an area of 1500 ha.
He also mentioned that the financial activities of the enterprise – annual output, extraction extent etc., are also considered to be commercial secrets, but they are economic indicators, which should be available for all citizens for them to be able to evaluate whether or not they are developed correctly.
What about heap leach facility, in this regard Ruben Movsesyan said, “We need standards for any heap leach facility, we don’t have them developed, but foreign countries have. Europe is densely populated and they think of their environmental situation, so they have adopted a law which says heap leach facilities shall be located in a distance of 30 km.”
It should be mentioned that Ararat gold extraction plant, which extracts gold with cyanide and the cyanide tailing dump of the plant is located very close to Ararat Town. Lydian International Company intending to develop Amulsar gold mine will locate the heap leach facility in a distance of only 1 km from the eastern border of Gndevaz Village, Vayots Dzor Region.
Dean of the Faculty Marat Grigoryan stressed out the risks of the Artsvanik tailing dump owned by Zangezour Copper and Molybdenum Combine. “We are concerned with such volumes of the tailing dump - around 310 million cum. The seismic risks for such volumes of the tailing dump are rather high,” Marat Grigoryan said. He is also concerned with the state of Akhtala old and operating tailing dumps and mentioned that they pose higher risks than Artsvanik tailing dump.
November 21, 2014 at 11:44