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After years of indecision, Armenia appears to be paving the way for resuming the progression of the questionable Amulsar gold mine project.
On June 18, new reforms to the country’s mining code came into force that, among other things, allow companies to carry out mining activities with environmental impact in tests of more than a year, provided that the delay is due to reasons such as “civil disobedience. “
Development of the Amulsar mine was suspended in 2018 following widespread protests opposing the project’s potential environmental damage. Since then, its customers have declined and increased, and the government seems unable to reconcile the lack of investment and jobs in the country with the serious environmental problem. consequences that threatened the mine and the consequent popular opposition to the project.
The government has officially said whether it intends to restart the mining project. But activists monitoring him say all the symptoms point in that direction.
After Parliament passed the law this year, an organization of activist organizations called on the government to repeal it. as the right to participate in decision-making,” the Feb. 10 letter reads. “It is evident that the legislative update is basically similar to the Amulsar gold quartzite mine progression project. “
Amulsar is one of the largest foreign investments in Armenia. The corporation that operates it, Lydian International, says it has already invested $300 million in the allocation and says the mine would contribute $488 million to the state budget through taxes and royalties on its 11 years of operation, or 1. 4 percent of the country’s gross domestic product.
But many experts and environmentalists say the mining process at Amulsar, near the Jermuk hotel, will damage the local ecology and could even pollute Lake Sevan, Armenia’s largest source of new water.
As an opposition politician, Nikol Pashinyan also opposed the project, whose contract was signed in 2007. When Pashinyan became prime minister after the 2018 “velvet revolution,” activists, encouraged by the forcible rise of someone they considered an ally, joined. for a new wave of protests against the mine that summer. The Attorney General’s Office opened a thief investigation in August 2018 against the mine’s operator, Lydian Armenia, accusing him of damaging the surroundings through unauthorized mining operations.
The government commissioned a new audit of the project, arguing that the first environmental effects in the tests were marred by the close agreement with Lydian Armenia of the experts who carried them out. When the new audit was published in August 2019, it largely supported earlier evidence, although it identified some additional risks.
Pashinyan first said the new audit was positive enough to go ahead with the project, but a negative public reaction forced the government to back down and promise it would produce some other environmental effect on the assessment.
Meanwhile, the thief’s case ended in December 2021. A new environmental impact assessment has never been conducted, and the new law means Amulsar can go ahead with the most recent assessment.
Sources from existing and past governments told Eurasianet, on condition of anonymity, that post-war economic desires have led to a significant increase in the likelihood of the mine reopening.
Western embassies, in addition to the British and American embassies, have long supported the assignment. Ambassador Lynne Tracy visited the mine in April and “fostered a spark and a transparent resolution of notable disputes around allocation,” the embassy said in a statement. allocation perspective to serve as a vital expansion engine for the Armenian economy. “
Environmental activists disagree.
“[T]he evidence of serious violations of a wide range of rights in the advancement of the Amulsar gold mine, from substantive and procedural environmental rights to the social, economic and political rights of Americans and the communities involved,” CEE Bankwatch Network wrote. , an organization that tracks projects in the region funded through foreign monetary institutions, in a new report.
He advised that the Armenian government revoke all licenses to operate the mine, publish an “independent qualified assessment of prices and gain advantages” from the allocation, and then “take this assessment into account to ensure that the negative effects are properly known and prevented. “and that other individuals and communities can derive direct benefits from the task if it ultimately continues.
By Eurasianet. org
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