make preferableYEREVAN. – What happened during the videoconference with the representatives of ELARD was already written in the conclusion of ELARD. The Deputy Prime Minister of Armenia, Tigran Avinyan, on Wednesday told this to reporters, referring to the prospects for the operation of the Amulsar gold mine. Avinyan added that he was not concerned by what took place during the aforesaid videoconference.
Asked what questions the positive conclusion by the Investigative Committee after that videoconference have raised and what the Armenian authorities think, the deputy PM responded that this is a matter of legal assessment.
“I don’t think I can give a legal assessment,” he said.
Also, Avinyan touched upon the matter of whether there is an obligation that Armenia must operate the Amulsar mine.
“The only obligation is that our state shall be a lawful state and a country of law,” the deputy PM said. “Personally, I have one interest: it’s the protection and preservation of the state interest. I don’t and can’t have any other interest.”
The American-British Lydian Armenia company began construction of the Amulsar gold mine in 2016, announcing it will invest more than $400 million in this project.
Environmentalists, however, have kept the roads to Amulsar closed for a long time. They oppose Amulsar’s operation, and argue that the exploitation of this gold mine will have a disastrous impact on the environment.
In 2019, the Armenian government petitioned to the ELARD consulting firm of Lebanon for an expert conclusion on Amulsar. The government announced that it will make a final decision on Amulsar’s operation only after receiving this conclusion.
Subsequently, the ELARD expert conclusion stated that environmental risks will be manageable if proper monitoring is carried out at Amulsar.
But following a recent videoconference with ELARD experts, Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan wrote on Facebook that several new circumstances had emerged during this videoconference, and which need to be investigated and assessed.
The Ministry of Environment has to decide by Wednesday whether the Amulsar gold mine project needs to undergo a new Environmental Impact Assessment.
