Save Teghout group
Save Teghout group calls upon all in Armenia and abroad to boycott the activities of VTB bank which is planning to fund Teghout project. Particularly, close all your accounts at VTB bank, do not make any transfers or take other actions via VTB bank, do not make any business or personal deposits at VTB bank.
The Armenian Copper Program (ACP) company, which is going to exploit the mine at Teghout, is registered in Lichtenstein, and is part of the “Vallex Group”, which already has turned Alaverdi (in North Armenia) into a poisonous desert town.
The exploitation of the Teghout mine will have an immense negative effect on nature, life and health of the people of Armenia, as well as on the prospect of sustainable development for the country. The exploitation of this mine cannot be justified for any economic, social or environmental reasons. Exploitation of the Teghut mine means:
1. consuming the remaining copper and molybdenum resources of our country, leaving nothing to future generations (we are already depleting our biggest molybdenum mine in Kajaran, South Armenia);
2. extracting only the copper and the molybdenum out of the rich mineral mixture available in the ground, while all other metals will be accumulating in the tailings dump as waste.
3. the mine will be exploited as an open pit, which means, up to 500 million cubic meters of waste rock and tailings will be generated, destroying thousands of hectares of forests, pastures and orchards, destroying the water regime of the region, polluting the streams and the rivers, burying local streams under waste rock and releasing hundreds of tons a year of dust particles into the air.
4. construction of a tailings dump with a volume of about 175 million cubic meters, which will be the largest for Armenia and will have an immediate effect on Debed river, which is already polluted heavily with metals and chemical reagents.
5. no opportunities for agricultural development, which means disappearance of hundreds of traditional, environmentally clean jobs, and replacement of these jobs with low-paid, mine laborer jobs in a hazardous and toxic environment.
Save Teghut Group, which is mainly composed of young people, is full of commitment to continue the struggle for the preservation of Nature, for saving the very damaged but not completely destroyed wilderness of our country. This wilderness must be saved for the sake of a healthy future.
Save Teghut Group calls everybody to join their voice to the boycott action on http://gopetition.com/online/27769.html address.
May 20, 2009