Vice Prime Minister: government delegation to visit Amulsar

ArmInfo.Representatives of the government June 6 under the leadership of the Minister of Nature Protection Eric Grigoryan will visit Amulsar. Armenian Deputy Prime  Minister Tigran Avinyan wrote about this on his Facebook page.

"Thus, we announce the beginning of work aimed at fulfilling the task  of the Prime Minister." After the minister's visit, the specialized  inspection body, in which all interested parties will be included,  will begin inspections as soon as possible, "he wrote.

At the same time, he assured compatriots concerned about  environmental issues that issues related to the environment are  constantly at the center of the Government's attention. At the same  time, he stressed that the Government in this direction is doing a  great job, the results of which can not be reported on a daily basis.

"Only by the principle of mutual trust and partnership can achieve  the desired results, which will mean that the economy is developing  naturally, and nature is freed from disproportionate and unlawful  damage," Avinyan wrote.

Earlier, Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan instructed the authorities to  begin inspections on the exploited mining deposits of Armenia. He  noted that recently there have been a lot of signals that the  activities of these mines do not correspond to the legislation and  environmental standards of the country. Already on May 29, a number  of Armenian public organizations addressed an open letter to the  Prime Minister calling for the suspension of the development of the  Amulsar deposit. In the opinion of the authors of the letter, the  development of the deposit may become a new ecological catastrophe  for Armenia. "We are aware that until now the state policy in the  mining sector has been based on such development scenarios, which  many countries of the world have refused, since in the short term it  is a very risky enterprise, economically unreasonable and financially  unstable," the letter says. It also indicates the danger of such  factors as violation of human security, generally accepted norms and  infringement of the rights of future generations.

Meanwhile, on the eve of Lydian Armenia executive director Hayk  Aloyan made a statement in which, in particular, it was said that for  the second day about 20 people blocked the roads leading to the  construction site of the Amulsar deposit, thus depriving more than  1,450 employees of the opportunity to conduct legal work , tearing  down the country's largest investment program. "This provocation is  directed not only against the company, but also the country, as it  prevents the transfer of several hundred thousand dollars a day to  the republic." Lydian Armenia "is ready for any checks on  environmental standards, social management criteria, financial flows,  shareholders, transparency tax revenues and others, "the statement  said. Let us recall that Lydian Armenia is a subsidiary of the  British Lydian International, whose shareholders are large  international institutional investors from the United States, Great  Britain, and a number of European countries, including institutional  structures such as IFC and EBRD. The Amulsar project is the largest  industrial project in Armenia for the development of a gold ore  deposit with a total value of $ 370 million. In August 2016, a  project was launched that assumes the construction and development of  the field. Preliminary work has been carried out since 2006. The life  of the Amulsar deposit will be 10 years and 4 months, an annual  average of 200,000 ounces of gold (about 10 million tons of ore) is  planned. Within the framework of the Amulsar program, 1,300 jobs will  be created in the construction process (construction works will last  about 2 years) and 650-700 jobs throughout the entire operation of  the field. The shareholders of the company are also international  institutional investors IFC and EBRD. The company's shares are quoted  on the Toronto Stock Exchange. Amulsar deposit is the second largest  in Armenia.