On July 23, one of the Facebook users posted a video about the pollution of the Voghji River in Kapan, Syunik Region. Hasmik Harutyunyan from Public Relations Department of Kapan Municipality informed that the Voghji River was polluted with acidic water coming from the abandoned Kavart mine, as it rained heavily at night.
Kavart mine has been developed since Soviet times. In the post-Soviet years, the last right to operate the mine belonged to the Canadian company Deno Gold Mining, which in 2011, however, refused to operate the mine without fully extracting the mine reserves, considering it unprofitable, and handed it over to the state. Experts, meanwhile, say the Kapan central mine should be developed in conjunction with another mine, as its reserves are not large enough to be developed separately. Under such conditions, no investor will agree to operate the mine separately. In the same way, the mine remains open, regularly polluting the environment.
July 24, 2020 at 09:06