Noyan Tapan HighLight, Inga Zarafyan
The harsh discussion over the procession of the copper and molybdenum deposit in Teghut, which was held at sitting of the Union of the Green’s of Armenia on May 27, 2008, was interrupted by an unexpected message. “We have lost Teghut!!!,” cried a journalist known to me over the mobile phone, “in the Government house the Russian VTB is signing an agreement on allocating credit amounting to more than 275 million dollars to the Vallex Group for the Teghut project, if the sum is allocated then it is the end…”
One should have understood earlier that the agreement over financing would play a decisive role in the Teghut project. However, the public movement “SOS Teghut” has brought an accusation to the company, the Ministry of Environmental Protection, the Government, but at that it did not notice one of the main interested sides, and as it proved, in vain.
As early as in 2006, it became known that the “Vallex Group” company is trying to get a credit from the European Bank of Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) for the Teghut project. Earlier the EBRD had already allocated 3 million dollars to the company for modernization of the Alaverdi cooper-smelting industrial complex with the aim of decreasing the throwing.
The interest of EBRD towards the mining industry was also shown in allocation of 25 million dollars to the “Dino Gold Mining” company for the modernization and expansion of the industry of the Kapan poly-metallic deposit and Kapan concentrating industrial complex. The bank was not confused by the circumstance that the industrial complex regularly poured out toxic tailings on the territory of the neighboring villages: in the village of Syunik the cattle died and children were poisoned. The company took the responsibility for it and not its partner, the bank.
However, the Vallex Group company did not receive the credit expected from the EBRD. In order to convince everyone of the reliability of the project the company needed certain efforts. It’s not a mere chance that the trumps of Vallex Group were the positive conclusion of the state environmental expertise and the organized public hearings. At that neither the company nor the authorities were confused of the fact that the public not just spoke “against” Teghut. During 2.5 years the public movement more and more got political outline, got a mass character and joint to itself human rights organizations, the parliamentary opposition and the youth with radical moods.
By the way, the merit of formation of the “green” new political movement belongs to the former Minister of the Environment Vardan Ayvazian, who repeatedly announced that the Teghut project is the result of the “political decision.”
It is not secret that the political decisions increase investment risks, especially in case of non-stabile political situation. New investment partner, one of the main players of the Armenian financial market the Russian VTB decided to share the risks of the project. We will try to find out what the investor counted on.
First about the damages.
Water. Alexei Tariverdian, the candidate of technical sciences (Hayjrnakhagits), who was invited by the State Environmental Expertise of the RA Ministry of Environment as an independent expert on the Teghut project, considers that detailed researches on the condition of sand-pit and soil waters were conducted in the territory of Kharadzor gorge intended for tailings. The danger is that in case of intensive precipitations the sand-pit will be filled and the sand-pit waters with the admixture of metals can be flow out into the Shnokh river. As for the Kharadzor tailing, then according to the project capacity it should be one of the biggest in Armenia (180-200mln. cubic meters), supposed with closed cycle. However, until the wastes pumped up in the tailings will reach the cleansing wells, they will be filtered through soil. In the opinion of Tariverdian, additional researches of these possibilities should be done by all means. “I asked this question to the projectors, but the response was that it will be taken into consideration at the second stage of projecting,” said Tariverdian.
As Tatul Manaserian, the doctor of sciences in economy, estimated, as a result of the realization of the Teghut program three rivers with all the flora and fauna will be irrevocably destroyed. The price of the damage is equal to the market value of fish in it - 175 thousand drams per river. “ I am ready give my modest salary and buy five rivers, in order to present them to Armenia,” said Tatul Manaserian.
Former governor of Lori marz Henrik Kochinian expressed apprehension at the public hearings in Vanadzor that two villages, Shnokh and Teghut, will be deprived of water.
If the water supply is violated, the lands of agricultural significance will be poisoned with heavy metals, the trans-border river Debet will get a present in the form of toxic mixtures, if the ecological migration starts then only on the line of water the damage will be counted by million of figures. This circumstance is in no way reflected in the project.
Forest. In 2006 it was announced that nearly 700 hectares of forest would be cut down in Teghut. After public protest this figure was reduced almost twofold, up to 357 hectares. At that the sizes of concrete objects - of the future of sand-pit, factory, tailing and etc, did not undergo any change.
If one looks attentively at the government decision N 1278 of November 1, 2007, then it will become clear that the company was cunning and washed away the figures on the land categories. For instance, the territories covered with woods and the territories occupied by bushes are considered individually, though it is understandable that they both are forests. By the way, “Armforest”, which was to have taken part in the holding of the expertise, did not make any researches, and did not give the respective conclusion.
Bio-varieties. It is known that 10 species of reptiles, 29 species of squamatas, 59 species of birds, 55 species of mammals, 191 species of plants habitat in the Teghut forest. The project mentions about the damage to the bio-variety, but not about compensation of the damage. It was offered to the company to create a specially guarded territory around Teghut, but the offer was ignored.
Soil. The soil poisoned by the heavy metals is the indispensable component of all the concentrating enterprises. But several important risks are added to this in Teghut. The Teghut forest is mountainous and has a protective function. The cutting down of the forest can lead to landslides, which is typical for this region. The risks are also connected with the fact that the region of the Teghut project is not deserted, but densely populated; it is considered as an agricultural and tourism zone. If the landslide process begins and the poisoned soil will begin to slip from the mountain slop, then who will compensate the damage to the local population and the government? There isn’t a word about this in the project.
Local population. The population of the villages of Teghut and Shnokh threats the project equivocally. Those who are poorer and do not receive profit from land, sold their territories to the company for miserable sums. They hope to get a job even in the form of unskilled laborers. Those who have profit from agriculture evaluate their land plots much more expensive than the company offers then and they complain of the pressure. For example, they say, that with the introduction of the company they are not given equipment, water is turned off. One of the most important questions, the health of people, who undergo risk because of the possible poisoning of waters, soils, air, agricultural products, is not mentioned in the project. The company, however, should have foreseen the expenditures on this kind of needs of the local population as well.
This is about the damages. Now, about the profits.
Questions without answers. Let’s try to understand how much is Teghut indeed. At the conference on Teghut, which was held on May 13, 2008, doctor of geo-mineralogical sciences Hrachya Avagian pointed out to the fact that there are rare and diffused metals, such as rhenium, tellurium, selenium, bismuth and etc, in the copper and molybdenum ore. For example rhenium is needed by the cosmic and military industry. “If to take into consideration that fact that only 35-40 tones of rhenium is extracted in the world, and the needs increase, then it is difficult to imagine that the buyers of the Teghut raw materials will throw away the rhenium and the other rare elements, the value of which is thousand times higher than the copper,” said H. Avagian.
Is it possible that the company does not know what complex indeed it experts in the form of raw materials and sells under the guise of copper or in the last resort of copper and molybdenum.
The popular word “nano-technologies” means dealing with sizes like nanometer, i.e., one billionth part of meter. This characterization can completely be used to the Teghut project, where the expected revenues to the budget can be called “nano-percents”, which the project partners intend to pay to our state, and take the rest for themselves. The task is to get rid of the modern prefixes “nano” and to present the pluses and minuses of the project the way they are. Maybe then better times await Teghut.
May 24, 2008