It’s rather difficult to say when the Amulsar gold mine will be opened, but I am inclined to operate the mine. This is what Deputy Prime Minister of Armenia Suren Papikyan said during an interview with RFE/RL Armenian Service, in response to a Facebook user’s question about Amulsar gold mine.

“This obviously needs to comply with all the norms. When I say I am inclined to operate the mine, create jobs and add funds to the budget, I mean that in the case of maintenance of environmental norms,” he added.

When told that there is no success in reaching consensus over this issue with environmentalists and various circles of the public, the Deputy Prime Minister noted that there can always be opponents and people with different opinions and that there have to be facts.