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LAKE SEVAN THREATENED BY MINING
BY GALUST NANYAN
asbarez
Tuesday, December 13th, 2011
Lake Sevan
YEREVAN-Environmental activists in Armenia are stepping up their
year-long campaign against a gold-processing plant, which they
believe poses serious risks to a unique lake that provides much of
the country's drinking water.
Their concerns center on an ore-crushing plant at the Sotk gold mine,
owned by the GeoProMining company. The plant was completed this year
but is at a standstill while the environment ministry runs checks on
its impact on the surrounding area.
Gold-bearing ore from the Sotk mine used to be taken elsewhere for
processing, but the company wanted to streamline its operations by
crushing the rock locally.
In 2009, a project to build a plant for the complete cycle of
processing ore into gold, which would have involved the use of cyanide
to separate the precious metal from other minerals, was shelved.
Environmentalists still fear that the partial processing done by the
new unit will release other minerals into the freshwater system that
feeds Lake Sevan, the largest lake in the Caucasus.
The lake is a major source of drinking water for people in the Armenian
capital Yerevan and much of the rest of the country.
"The waste created by processing ore will end up in the lake," warned
Gagik Tadesvosyan, an environmentalist from the SOS Sevan group.
"Agricultural land is being reassigned for mining operations, and
that creates a carcinogenic environment."
Inga Zarafyan of the Ecolur pressure group was among a group of
activists who visited Sotk to inspect the crushing plant in October.
They say the unit is in breach of a law protecting Lake Sevan's
catchment area from ore processing.
"The machinery will smash the rock, sift it, remove gold and silver
from the ore, and leave all the unwanted remains to end up in Lake
Sevan," she said.
Environmentalists want the government to halt operations at the
crushing plant, arguing that the nearby rivers Sotk and Masrik are
already polluted with traces of toxic metals.
Zarafyan said ore processing at Sotk was expected to leave 100
million tons of waste material, which would leak sulphides, chromium
compounds, cadmium and other substances into the rivers and then into
the lake itself.
GeoProMining spokesperson Ruzanna Grigoryan denied that the company
was doing anything illegal and said the technologies it uses are
modern and efficient.
GeoProMining Gold says it has all the paperwork it needs to operate
the crushing plant, an assessment with which Armenia's energy and
natural resources ministry agrees.
The environment ministry, however, appears to disagree. Its department
that is responsible for checking ecological impacts says the company
has been ordered to halt ore-crushing operations at Sotk until a
thorough analysis can be carried out.
"The company has yet to present any documents," said Henrik Grigoryan,
deputy head of the body that conducts the environmental checks.
Kolik Shahsuvaryan, the local government chief in Sotk, refused to
be drawn into stating his view of the gold mining operation.
"I try to adopt a neutral position or just not to talk about it. Let
the government decide," Shahsuvaryan said. "However, I have discussed
it with the company's leadership. Construction [of the ore-crushing
unit] has been completed. I can't say whether it meets environmental
standards or not."
GeoProMining Gold is clearly confident it will overcome objections to
the new ore-crushing facility. It is expanding capacity at its plant
in Ararat, where it conducts the more complex operations to extract
gold and silver from ore, and expects annual production to rise from
the current level of 30,000-40,000 ounces to 150,000 ounces.
Galust Nanyan is a correspondent for the www.yerkir.am news site in
Armenia. This report was originally published by the Institute for
War and Peace Reporting.
From: A. Papazian
BY GALUST NANYAN
asbarez
Tuesday, December 13th, 2011
Lake Sevan
YEREVAN-Environmental activists in Armenia are stepping up their
year-long campaign against a gold-processing plant, which they
believe poses serious risks to a unique lake that provides much of
the country's drinking water.
Their concerns center on an ore-crushing plant at the Sotk gold mine,
owned by the GeoProMining company. The plant was completed this year
but is at a standstill while the environment ministry runs checks on
its impact on the surrounding area.
Gold-bearing ore from the Sotk mine used to be taken elsewhere for
processing, but the company wanted to streamline its operations by
crushing the rock locally.
In 2009, a project to build a plant for the complete cycle of
processing ore into gold, which would have involved the use of cyanide
to separate the precious metal from other minerals, was shelved.
Environmentalists still fear that the partial processing done by the
new unit will release other minerals into the freshwater system that
feeds Lake Sevan, the largest lake in the Caucasus.
The lake is a major source of drinking water for people in the Armenian
capital Yerevan and much of the rest of the country.
"The waste created by processing ore will end up in the lake," warned
Gagik Tadesvosyan, an environmentalist from the SOS Sevan group.
"Agricultural land is being reassigned for mining operations, and
that creates a carcinogenic environment."
Inga Zarafyan of the Ecolur pressure group was among a group of
activists who visited Sotk to inspect the crushing plant in October.
They say the unit is in breach of a law protecting Lake Sevan's
catchment area from ore processing.
"The machinery will smash the rock, sift it, remove gold and silver
from the ore, and leave all the unwanted remains to end up in Lake
Sevan," she said.
Environmentalists want the government to halt operations at the
crushing plant, arguing that the nearby rivers Sotk and Masrik are
already polluted with traces of toxic metals.
Zarafyan said ore processing at Sotk was expected to leave 100
million tons of waste material, which would leak sulphides, chromium
compounds, cadmium and other substances into the rivers and then into
the lake itself.
GeoProMining spokesperson Ruzanna Grigoryan denied that the company
was doing anything illegal and said the technologies it uses are
modern and efficient.
GeoProMining Gold says it has all the paperwork it needs to operate
the crushing plant, an assessment with which Armenia's energy and
natural resources ministry agrees.
The environment ministry, however, appears to disagree. Its department
that is responsible for checking ecological impacts says the company
has been ordered to halt ore-crushing operations at Sotk until a
thorough analysis can be carried out.
"The company has yet to present any documents," said Henrik Grigoryan,
deputy head of the body that conducts the environmental checks.
Kolik Shahsuvaryan, the local government chief in Sotk, refused to
be drawn into stating his view of the gold mining operation.
"I try to adopt a neutral position or just not to talk about it. Let
the government decide," Shahsuvaryan said. "However, I have discussed
it with the company's leadership. Construction [of the ore-crushing
unit] has been completed. I can't say whether it meets environmental
standards or not."
GeoProMining Gold is clearly confident it will overcome objections to
the new ore-crushing facility. It is expanding capacity at its plant
in Ararat, where it conducts the more complex operations to extract
gold and silver from ore, and expects annual production to rise from
the current level of 30,000-40,000 ounces to 150,000 ounces.
Galust Nanyan is a correspondent for the www.yerkir.am news site in
Armenia. This report was originally published by the Institute for
War and Peace Reporting.
From: A. Papazian