A proposed gold-processing factory in the vicinity of Lake Sevan has given rise to a wave of serious protests: environmentalists are sounding the alarm that the factory’s plan to dump cyanide and other toxic chemical waste nearby will be ruinous for the lake, the source of 90 percent of Armenia’s fresh water.
The project for the construction of the factory has been submitted by the Russian Geopromining company, which owns mines in Armenia and Georgia. In 2007, the Russian company purchased both the Ararat gold-mining enterprise and the Sotq gold mine from its Indian owners. Geopromining also owns the copper and molybdenum mining plant in Agarak.
The planned gold-processing plant Geopromining wants to build at Sotq, located a mere 10 kilometers from Sevan, is intended to reduce expenses for transporting mined gold. Currently, the ore is sent via a Soviet-era railcar to the Ararat gold-processing plant, more than 250 kilometers away from Sevan.
The Russian project is not yet approved by the Ministry of Environmental Protection; however the members of the SOS Sevan initiative group of the Union of 42 environmental non-governmental organizations fear that economic interests will prevail over environmental hazards.
Vardan Vardanyan, Chairman of the Geopromining Ltd. Board, has tried to assuage the public outcry. On April 26, in an interview for Yerkir Media TV, he contended that the company planned to introduce environmentally safe technologies: “Even if there is a small hazard, we will stop all work on the proposed plant at the Sotq mine operation.”
The Ministry of Environmental Protection has also tried to ease fears, regularly announcing that the fuss is pointless, because “the Ministry has neither received nor approved any official project yet,” said Deputy Minister Simon Papyan, adding that four years ago, the RA Ministry of Environmental Protection refused to permit a similar project proposed by the former owner of Ararat gold mining factory, the India-based Vedanta Resources Company.
“If the Ministry again receives an application about the Sotq project, they will turn it down again,” Papyan said.
Yet environmental activists charge that discussions about the plant are happening behind closed doors. The most damning evidence is a document the Union of Environmental NGOs has obtained, which measures the environmental impact of building the plant – crediting many government-sponsored scientists and resources. On March 2, the group claims it became a topic of discussion headed by Vice Prime-Minister Armen Gevorgyan at the Territorial Administration Ministry.
Evelina Ghukhasyan, Scientific Secretary of the Hydroecology and Ichthyology Institute who participated in some of the report studies, said that the preliminary conclusion given by the Institute and submitted to this structure contained no positive conclusion whatsoever, but admitted that the results were not being publicly discussed.
“There were only initial data, based on the results of an investigation of only a few months; whereas a long-lasting and serious investigation is needed in order to issue such a conclusion,” Ghukasyan said. “By the way, this is the first time when the results of a scientific investigation are discussed behind closed doors.”
In any case, activists contend this survey is illegal, because Lake Sevan is protected by law against any mining or processing activities.
“Article 10, the Law on Sevan, exists on the books, which definitely prohibits any activity threatening the lake, even more so, if the activity is a mining and processing one,” Inga Zarafyan, President of the EcoLur Environmental protection information center said.
While the proposed mine is being discussed secretly, environmentalists are making it public by regularly held protests and demonstrations and that the slogan “the pollution of the Sevan will ruin all of Armenia.”
“Polluting Lake Sevan will also entail some other serious consequences, such as contaminated drinking water, irrigation systems, spoilt agricultural fields, and destruction of fishing zones,” said Silva Adamyan, a spokeswoman for the Union of Environmental NGOs.
One of the main dangers of the factory construction is where to put the waste-dirt after the processing of the ore. Containing a toxic composition of heavy metals, antimony, arsenic, pyrite and so on, these chemicals can penetrate into the subterranean and ground waters with atmospheric precipitation, and from those waters into the Sevan.
“A waste water treatment pool filled with cyanide compositions, heavy and toxic substances is a bomb waiting to drop on Sevan,” said Karine Danielyan, president of the Association for Sustainable Human Development. “It will take approximately 40 million dollars annually to ensure the operation and safety of the toxic waste disposed in this process.”
Today environmentalists are fighting not only to stop to stop state-level discussions on the project of the gold processing factory construction, but also are watching parliament to make sure there is no amendment to Article 10 protecting the lake.
“They must guarantee that the RA legislation on environmental protection will not be modified to be adjusted to the small-scale interests of Geopromining Company, and the ban on mining stipulated in the RA Law on Lake Sevan will remain unchanged,” Zarafyan said.
Parliamentarian Khachik Harutyunyan, Chairman of the Commission on Agriculture and Environmental Protection in the National Assembly, said that the issue was being mainly discussed within NGO circles, for neither the Commission, nor the government had yet received, and consequently, considered, any official document from Geopromining or a proposal to change the Sevan laws. - By Gayane Mkrtchyan/ArmeniaNow.com
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