Minister: During the development of the Amulsar mine, the results of  the 1952-1954 expedition were not taken into account

ArmInfo. During the development of  the Amulsar mine, the results of the 1952-1954 expedition were not taken into account. Minister of Environment of Armenia Erik  Grigoryan  stated on April 9 at a meeting of Inquiry Committee for  Studying the legality validity and reliability of financial and other  reports submitted to the bodies of executive power and adopted by  them in the framework of investment programs in the area of  industrial metal mining.

According to him, in the framework of the criminal case, it is  necessary to answer this question whether this fact is an attempt to  conceal the results of those studies, or is this an omission on the  part of the state body. As the Minister noted, significant deviations  were made in the implementation of the program. And if the company  has the opportunity to change them, it must do so.

In October last year, the minister noted that if the Lydian Armenia  company developing the dmine hid or falsified data on uranium  reserves at Amulsar, this would lead to serious consequences for it.  On September 5 of last year, the Ministry addressed a letter to the  Prime Minister of the Republic of Armenia Nikol Pashinyan, in which  it was noted about the results of the Gromov expedition conducted in  1952-1954. The package, which concerns the availability of uranium,  was sent to the Investigative Committee, and if it turns out that the  research procedures of Lydian were violated, the company will face  serious problems.

It should be noted that despite the assurances of the Lydian company  that about $ 400 million has already been invested in the development  project of the Amulsar gold mine, local ecologists do not share the  government's enthusiasm about the attractiveness of the mine's  development plan. Environmentalists fear that the development of  mine, during which sodium cyanide will be used, may lead to the  oxidation of water in rivers. Contaminated waters will become  unsuitable for drinking and irrigation and may cause irreparable harm  to the mineral springs of Jermuk and the ecosystem of Sevan. In  addition to the water basin, the public is also concerned about the  possible presence of uranium reserves in the mine.

So, Doctor of Geological Sciences Petros Gevorg Aloyan in his  ""Uranium content of geological formations in Armenia "  work, the  famous scientist,  referring to the data of the Gromov expedition,  noted that the Amulsar occurrence of uranium is located 4 km  southeast of the village of Ketchut and 5 km to northwest of the top  of the mountain of the same name. Approximately 76 tons of uranium  were calculated for five sections of the Amulsar occurrence, and  taking into account uranium in the thorium section, its total  reserves can be estimated at 100 tons. Moreover, according to the  research of another scientist, Professor G.S. Avagyan, according to  40 samples of Amulsar ore, there are 195 tons of uranium and thorium  there. Meanwhile, the development of uranium mines requires a special  government permit, which Lydian does not have. According to the  company, the mine contains about 73733 kg of gold with an average  grade of 0.78 g per ton, as well as 294.367 tons of silver with an  average grade of 9.29 g per ton, at the same time, not a word about  uranium itself.