A protest rally has begun against the development of the Amulsar gold deposit in Armenia’s Jermuk.

Earlier, a similar protest rally was held in front of the Armenian government building. The protesters demanded a meeting with the country's prime minister, but Nikol Pashinyan did not accept them and promised to meet them in the coming days.

As reported earlier, the Investigative Committee of Armenia on Wednesday publicized the final conclusion on the Amulsar gold mine examination. According to it, the contaminated waters of the Amulsar mine are very unlikely to have an impact on the Jermuk springs, since there are no paths to transfer the groundwater flow and the contamination.

A demonstration in support of Amulsar was staged Thursday outside the building of the government of Armenia.

The Armenian Environmental Front initiative has issued a statement, according to which Advanced Resources Development (ELARD) Lebanese consultancy firm has not submitted a conclusion with respect to the Amulsar gold mine, but rather just studied the documents presented by Lydian Armenia which operates this mine.

According to a study, there are numerous shortcomings in the project.

As per the statement which Lydian has released, it has always stressed that it operates in Armenia in accordance with its mining permits, which were granted based on a comprehensive Environmental Impact Assessment approval process. Nevertheless, Lydian’s Amulsar Project has been subject to three full-scale environmental audits since July last year. Lydian has fully cooperated with all audits.