Armenian Prime Minister does not rule out a referendum on Amulsar gold mine
05.03.2020,
09:36
Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan did not rule out that a referendum may be called to find out whether to allow the Amulsar gold mine to resume operation or shut it down.
YEREVAN, March 5. /ARKA/. Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan did not rule out that a referendum may be called to find out whether to allow the Amulsar gold mine to resume operation or shut it down.
“If, as a result of the discussions, we will conclude that there is such a need, then we are not limited by anything,” he said on Wednesday during a Q&A session in parliament.
Ani Samsonyan, a lawmaker from the Bright Armenia party, said that the idea of referendum is supported also by various citizens initiatives. Pashinyan said if the law allows this issue to be resolved by popular expression, a referendum could be convened on a civil initiative.
The development of the Amulsar project was halted in 2018 June after environmental groups and local residents set up illegal blockades preventing access to the mine. They argue that the project would pollute the Jermuk mineral water springs and Armenia’s largest Lake Sevan. Police have failed to remove the protesters.
In late August 2019, Pashinyan’s said in a Facebook live session that any decision on Amulsar must be made on the basis of facts, not emotions, by observing the country’s balance of interests, which consists of several components, such as environmental, economic and legal.
He said Amulsar gold deposit will be developed in accordance with highest environmental standards unprecedented for Armenia. Other mining companies will have to gradually comply with those standards.
“It is in the interests of the state that we satisfy the demand legitimately put forward and give the opportunity for the Amulsar field to be exploited,” he said.
In October 2019 the Administrative Court of Armenia ruled in favour of Lydian Armenia, a subsidiary of TSX-listed Lydian International, and upheld the company’s appeal against a directive of the environmental and mining inspection body, which had blocked mining at the Amulsar site.
ormer head of the inspection body, Artur Grigoryan, had directed Lydian on August 27, 2018, to refrain from any mining-related activities until the Ministry of Nature Protection conducted a study of “newfound ecological factors”, which he alleged had been identified at the Amulsar project for the first time.
According to a Lydian statement, the Administrative Court of Armenia established that the existence of the alleged ecological factors had not been substantiated after independent investigation. The court also found that Grigoryan had been actively involved in anti-Amulsar activities prior to his appointment as the head of the inspection body, which it said “raised reasonable doubts on his objectivity”.
In July 2018, Lydian Armenia had been granted the exclusive right to develop the Amulsar gold deposit in the southeastern Armenian province of Vayots Dzor, filed a complaint in support of a criminal investigation against activists at the blockades, which was later upheld in court.
That same month, a criminal investigation was opened into whether Armenian public officials had withheld information regarding potential environmental damage at Amulsar. The Armenian authorities allocated nearly $400,000 to Lebanon-based Earth Link & Advanced Resources Development (ELARD) for an independent review of the project’s environmental and social impact assessment (ESIA) as part of that investigation.
Referring to the review Prime Minister Pashinyan appeared to permit the mine to go ahead despite protests in Jermuk and Yerevan. However, several days later Pashinyan requested that Armenia’s Ministry of Environment decide whether a further environmental impact assessment (EIA) was required for the Amulsar project.
Lydian Armenia, established in 2005 and owned by Lydian International LLC, extract gold in Armenia. The Amulsar Gold Mine program is the company’s first project in Armenia. Amulsar is the second biggest gold field, which contains 31 million tons of gold ore and 40 tons of a pure gold. It sits in the south-eastern area of Armenia, 13 kilometers from Jermuk. -0-
“If, as a result of the discussions, we will conclude that there is such a need, then we are not limited by anything,” he said on Wednesday during a Q&A session in parliament.
Ani Samsonyan, a lawmaker from the Bright Armenia party, said that the idea of referendum is supported also by various citizens initiatives. Pashinyan said if the law allows this issue to be resolved by popular expression, a referendum could be convened on a civil initiative.
The development of the Amulsar project was halted in 2018 June after environmental groups and local residents set up illegal blockades preventing access to the mine. They argue that the project would pollute the Jermuk mineral water springs and Armenia’s largest Lake Sevan. Police have failed to remove the protesters.
In late August 2019, Pashinyan’s said in a Facebook live session that any decision on Amulsar must be made on the basis of facts, not emotions, by observing the country’s balance of interests, which consists of several components, such as environmental, economic and legal.
He said Amulsar gold deposit will be developed in accordance with highest environmental standards unprecedented for Armenia. Other mining companies will have to gradually comply with those standards.
“It is in the interests of the state that we satisfy the demand legitimately put forward and give the opportunity for the Amulsar field to be exploited,” he said.
In October 2019 the Administrative Court of Armenia ruled in favour of Lydian Armenia, a subsidiary of TSX-listed Lydian International, and upheld the company’s appeal against a directive of the environmental and mining inspection body, which had blocked mining at the Amulsar site.
ormer head of the inspection body, Artur Grigoryan, had directed Lydian on August 27, 2018, to refrain from any mining-related activities until the Ministry of Nature Protection conducted a study of “newfound ecological factors”, which he alleged had been identified at the Amulsar project for the first time.
According to a Lydian statement, the Administrative Court of Armenia established that the existence of the alleged ecological factors had not been substantiated after independent investigation. The court also found that Grigoryan had been actively involved in anti-Amulsar activities prior to his appointment as the head of the inspection body, which it said “raised reasonable doubts on his objectivity”.
In July 2018, Lydian Armenia had been granted the exclusive right to develop the Amulsar gold deposit in the southeastern Armenian province of Vayots Dzor, filed a complaint in support of a criminal investigation against activists at the blockades, which was later upheld in court.
That same month, a criminal investigation was opened into whether Armenian public officials had withheld information regarding potential environmental damage at Amulsar. The Armenian authorities allocated nearly $400,000 to Lebanon-based Earth Link & Advanced Resources Development (ELARD) for an independent review of the project’s environmental and social impact assessment (ESIA) as part of that investigation.
Referring to the review Prime Minister Pashinyan appeared to permit the mine to go ahead despite protests in Jermuk and Yerevan. However, several days later Pashinyan requested that Armenia’s Ministry of Environment decide whether a further environmental impact assessment (EIA) was required for the Amulsar project.
Lydian Armenia, established in 2005 and owned by Lydian International LLC, extract gold in Armenia. The Amulsar Gold Mine program is the company’s first project in Armenia. Amulsar is the second biggest gold field, which contains 31 million tons of gold ore and 40 tons of a pure gold. It sits in the south-eastern area of Armenia, 13 kilometers from Jermuk. -0-
