EcoLur
Vayq Town residents are frightened to death: Azatek mine geoprospecting works have launched directly above their houses, while the mine contains uranium, as old villagers insist. They say they will have to run away. “I live in Vayq Town. It’s already two months since heavy machinery has been operating day and night searching for gold next to my house. We have mountains both down and above us, and they are working day and night. We are terrified, as we know about uranium and these works may cause huge harm to our health. If it continues like this, it will be impossible to live in Vayq. The number of cancer diseases is already rather high in Vayq, while mortality rate is the highest in Armenia. Each family has at least one member with cancer. We don’t know who to apply to, who to speak to and who can provide any information to us. We don’t know what to do. Please help us and provide us any information, if you have,” Vayq Villagers’ letter addressed to EcoLur says.
EcoLur has been seeking to cover the presence of uranium in Azatek mine relying on the information from Gromov and Koltsov expeditions, which mention about uranium demonstration in Vayq.
“The inferred resources of the uranium are assessed 20,000-30,000 tons, while the perspectives of industrial development of uranium-bearing ores in Vayq mine are connected, first of all, with the complex use of these ores because of their gold content, and, secondly, with the industrial commercialization of Azatek.”
Washed product: Yield- 64.6 tons, % Uranium concentration -0.032, % Uranium concentration - 96.8, Commercial output – 64.6 tons, % Uranium concentration – 0.332 % Uranium concentration - 96.8. In tails – yield 35.4 tons, percentage concentration of uranium – 0.02, percentage uranium concentration - 3,2.”, says the article authored by G. P. Aloyan entitled “Resource Potential of Radioactive Raw Materials in Armenia and Its Development Perspectives” published in Russian “Mining Journal”, Issue N 6, 2007.
It’s known that the works are carried out by a local company – “Vayq Goold”. The information who owns this company is rather debatable. Under one source, the owner of the controlling share is Russian Alrosa diamond mining Company, which confirmed in 2007 it owns the shares of Azatek gold-polymetallic mine. Under another source, Anglo-AfricanMinerals Plc announced about owning the shares, which acted on behalf of Caspian Resources Development Limited in 2010. Then, different mass media published about invalidity of this transaction.
Besides probable presence of uranium, Azatek mine also contains gold, the reserves of which are estimated 2078.4 kg, as the book says authored by Hrachya Avagyan “Ways and Prospects of Mining and Metallurgical Industries in the Republic of Armenia” (Yerevan 2011, “Gitutyun” Publishing House, Institute of Economics of NAS RA). But the same book says it also contains highly hazardous substances for human health: antimony - 400 tons, lead - 13,0 thousand tons, zinc – 5.3 tons.
Maybe not uranium, but the concentration of these very elements causes the bad situation with Vayq villagers’ health, as geoprospecting resulted in opening the mine, from where the wind blows off toxic dust to villagers’ houses, where the dust subsides forming yellowish blast.
We are directing this alarm signal to Nature Protection Ministry and asking to urgently hold inspections in Azatek mine for revealing hazardous environmental pollution because of works carried out.
Taking into consideration that the Health Ministry in 2011 revealed increased cancer rate in Vayq Region we would like to ask to hold a monitoring of villagers’ health under the exposure of hazardous element disseminated from Azatek mine.
We would like to ask the State Committee on Nuclear Safety to hold urgent examinations of the radiation background in different sections of Azatek mine and villagers’ houses exposed to the pollution from the carried out works.
October 20, 2014 at 13:43