DIGGING UP CONTROVERSY: ENVIRONMENTALISTS UNHAPPY WITH EXPECTED MINING PERMISSION
- Sometime within the next month, Armenia’s Ministry of Nature Protection, through its new minister Aram Harutyunyan, will designate use of the Teghut region for mining exploitation. (Harutyunyan was appointed after the May 12 parliamentary elections.)It is general knowledge, though, that a decision has already been reached to continue the previous agreement on the Lori territory with Armenian Copper Program (ACP), as agreed under the ministry’s previous minister, Vardan Ayvazyan.
“Our estimations show that at the first stage of the mine’s operation, that is in the next 15 years, ACP will spend only $500 million. Meanwhile, the profit will make $2 billion. This sum will go not to the state coffers but to a private pocket; pennies will be given to the state as compensation,” Orinats Yerkir faction economist Razmik Terteryan says.
ACP, which is part of Valex Group, was provided with 1,970 hectares of territory of which 1,589.6 from the forest fund, and 380.4 hectares of lands of communal use. (Eighty-one percent of ACP shares belong to the Liechtenstein-registered Valex F.M.Establishment Company, and 19 percent to Russia-based entrepreneur Valeri Mezhlumyan.)
According to the estimations of Chairman of Armenia’s Union of Greens Hakob Sanasaryan, 170,833 trees will be cut as part of the company’s exploitation.
Significantly, the trees are in a zone of declivity, where they are supposed to be protected by law as a measure against soil erosion.
“Our estimations show that about 2,000 hectares of forests will disappear as a result of the operation of the mine, the establishment of a tailings depot and installation of communication infrastructure, in consequence of which Teghut will become a landslide zone,” says Terteryan.
There are as many as 55,000 rare and 45,000 valuable trees in the Teghut forests, as well as plants and animal species registered in the Red Book that could be endangered if the forests are destroyed.
“The future of the northern part of Armenia is blurry: loggings and the mining industry have already ousted the leopard, chamois, red deer. The north (Lori) was the habitat for these species,” says Director of the Armenian office of the World Wildlife Fund (WWF) Karen Manvelyan. “As the mine is operated, birds, mammals will abandon their habitats, the reptiles and plants will incur considerable damage.”
Terteryan expresses the same concern: “There will be noise 24 hours a day in that place, which means that the animals will run away.”
Representatives of 26 organizations that are part of the “SOS Teghut” coalition say that the proposed project violates 77 provisions of Armenia’s law and international treaties.
ACP Company Executive Director Gagik Arzumanyan says that, over the next 25 years of the mine’s operation would cause about $6.6 million in damage to the environment and that the company has factored that expense into its environmental-impact contingency plan. Opponents of the mine, however, say the cost will be multiple times that estimation.
According to the ex-minister, the company has gone to great expense prospecting the area, and has learned that the territory holds 150,000 tons of molybdenum and 1.6 million tons of copper.
In this context, Ayvazyan considers as negligible the loggings to be carried out by ACP, especially that the company plans to plant as much forest as it cuts. According to MP Gurgen Sargsyan of the Orinats Yerkir faction, “these pledges are tales, since an industrial complex will be built there, therefore nothing can be restored.”
The mine that will cover an area of 670 hectares directly adjoins the villages of Shnogh and Teghut (with a total population of about 5,000). The greater part of the communal lands of these villages is also included in the mine surface. The local residents say that the trees of the forest have thick trunks and it will take decades to re-grow similar trees.
“The spread of dust full of active substances and heavy metals will also damage the rest of the forest. Besides, the population of the villages of Teghut and Shnogh uses the forest goods, which will also disappear,” Sargsyan says.
In case of partial and full operation of the mine tailings will make 180 and 540 million cubic meters respectively. According to the working project for the Teghut mine, it is expected to construct a tailings depot in the valley of the river Pakasajur. With its infrastructures it will occupy an area of 170-180 hectares.
Sanasaryan is also concerned over the selection of the location for the tailings depot, which, in his opinion, can cause landslides and collapses. There is also a real concern that the penetration of copper, molybdenum, sulfur, arsenic, lead, zinc and other poisonous metals into ground, water and air basins will do great harm to the environment and human health.
Head of the Department of Useful Minerals of the Geological Agency of the Ministry of Nature Protection Gagik Haroyan says, however, it is a normal project from the geological point of view.
The mine was found in 1937, however, the Soviet Armenia, through the first secretary of the Armenian Communist Party’s Central Committee, categorically closed that territory for industrial purposes saying that the unique nature of the Teghut forest must be protected. Ecolur NGO chairwoman Inga Zarafyan also confirms this fact.
In order to alleviate the situation to some extent, environmentalists propose at least close-cast mining, which would considerably reduce damage to the environment. According to head of the geological survey group for the Teghut mine Gagik Babayan, however, the mine does not have a ‘vein’, and therefore close-cast underground mining is impossible.
As a counterargument Terteryan says that “close-cast operation is about 7-8 times more expensive than open-pit mining, and consequently it is not suitable for the company.”
For related information see: http://www.armenianow.com/?action=viewArticle&AID=2065
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