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AMULSAR: "INFERTILE MOUNTAIN" AS A MEANS OF LIVELIHOOD
Aram Gareginyan, ArmInfo
ArmInfo
2011-01-26 06:10:00
Somehow this mountain got the name Amulsar, which translates from
Armenian as "infertile mountain". There is plenty of treeless mountains
around, so why be so choosy about that particular one?
Anyway, there are no trees on it, but there is gold ore below.
It's going to take 3 - 5 years before Lydian International from
Britain, through its Armenian subsidiary, Geoteam, starts to mine it.
But the mountain has already become a workplace for drivers, laborers
and technicians from the three surrounding villages - Gndevaz and
Saravan of Vayots Dzor province and Gorhayk of Syunik. The rural
municipality of Saravan includes three villages - Saravan itself,
Saralandj and Ugedzor. Hence, at least partial solution of rural
unemployment in five remote villages, 170 - 180 km away from the
capital city, Yerevan.
>>From Gndevaz, Geoteam employs around 20 people. "They work at the
probe laboratory and the exploration camp", says the head of Gndevaz,
Hayrapet Lazarian. "When the year begins, we hold a meeting, where
the general director of Geoteam, Hayk Aloyan, lays out the action plan
for the year. Camp manager assembles a list of vacancies, and people
can apply, stating professional abilities they possess - in welding,
electrical repairs or whatever. The company recruits them according
to its needs. Some have already specialized - say, as drilling machine
or probe lab operators". Well, what have been electricians or welders
doing in a village before Geoteam came? "Most have been employed on
a local poultry plant, which has closed down temporarily. I'm glad
our people have another job opportunity at home".
The territory explored by Geoteam falls within the boundaries of
Gndevaz, Saravan and Gorhayk municipalities. A distant land of little
agricultural value is out of any demand. Its yearly rent rate was
defined at 700 dram (about $2) per hectare by the State. Geoteam rents
it for 6 thousand dram per hectare in all the three municipalities.
"Within our administrative borders, Geoteam rents a little above
430 hectares. The overall entry to our municipal cant' be called
unbelievably high. But for us, it changes a lot. One can always make
a good use of that money, even though a lot has already been done".
>>From the outside, Gndevaz looks relatively well - in part, due to
contributions of its wealthy natives. One of them, Ashot Arsenyan,
owns the mineral water plant of Jermuk, one of the most recognizable
Armenian trademarks. That assistance secured a constant gas supply
from as far back as 1997, and helped to improve irrigation channels
last year. "We are most thankful to the people whose efforts made that
possible. But unemployment still remains our primary concern. Luckily,
the resort town of Jermuk is nearby, providing us some occupation -
both through the mineral water plant and hotels". On top of that,
apricot, the trademark of Armenia, could be called staple commodity
for Gndevaz. There, they ripen in September, long after the majority
of the crop in the lowlands of Ararat valley is harvested and
marketed. Therefore it meets no competition, both at home and abroad.
"We've been exporting it successfully to Moscow, and we think about
expanding our orchards". Truly, one can call apricot another kind of
gold on the foot of Amulsar.
>>From Gndevaz, we drive across the mountain to our next destination,
the village of Gorhayk in the neighboring province of Syunik. The
village is not as well off as Gndevaz, but its municipality head,
Arustam Arustamyan, has got vision and projects for the future,
both connected with Geoteam and standalone ones. Geoteam has been
partnering with Gorhayk for 5 years. "When they came to start working
in 2006, we first offered them warehouse premises", he said. "Then we
assembled the residents of the village and agreed with the company
on the process of employment and the enlistment of our people. From
then on, we started to work closely together". The first assistance
provided by Geoteam to Gorhayk, even before the exploration started,
was the 600 000 dram's contribution to Gorhayk's 3 mln AMD co-founding
of the World Bank's Municipal Water and Wastewater Project.
"Afterwards they helped to restore the municipal hall, which had
been standing uncovered for 7 - 8 years - its roof had been blown
off by the wind. Geoteam also assisted us in acquiring equipment for
our healthcare center". Here the company rents for exploration 1026
hectares, at the same rate of 6 000 AMD per hectare.
Today, you can easily tell Gorhayk from other villages of Syunik:
it's the only village in the whole province to arrange regular street
sanitation. "We've been doing it for three years, and people couldn't
get accustomed to it for a long time. Now they have incorporated
the idea that they can have the same facilities that are available
in cities. Garbage is collected weekly, and this is quite enough -
part of our household waste, for example, vegetable peelings, is
used as a livestock feed". The assistance of Geoteam also included
renovation of 18-km road from Gorhayk to Amulsar, used by a dozen
of neighboring villages, and rehabilitation of 4 km of roads within
Gorhayk. If employment in Gorhayk is as big a concern as in Gndevaz,
here too it's been significantly eased.
During the drilling season, from early spring to late fall, the
company employs 35 - 37 people from Gorhayk, mainly young people. "We
are happy to have them stay at home and not leaving to find a job
elsewhere. University students from our village, who major in geology
or mining, get full tuition scholarships from Geoteam. We have both
those who initially entered those departments and transferees. It's
good for them to master a profession with which to be employed at
home. People will definitely return home if they see opportunities for
a decent life. Last year, three families, who had left for Russia,
resettled at the homes they had abandoned. Years ago, one couldn't
have imagined it".
Arustam Arustamyan has a whole set of plans to improve the life
of Gorhayk. He thinks of upgrading the quality of pasturelands,
seeding alfalfa along with feeding livestock on natural pastures,
and of rehabilitating a small cheesemaking factory located on Amulsar,
to process milk on the spot.
Our jorney ends at Saravan. High organizational skills and personal
efforts of the village head, Simon Babayan, helped the people to
manage some of their difficulties on their own - in some cases,
on do-it-yourself basis, which proved to be cost effective.
>>From Saravan, Geoteam recruits 16 - 17 people. Here too selection was
made to support the young and not-yet-married. "Livestock breeding is
not very popular today, and young boys, returning home from military
service, preferred to move to urban areas. Today, they get a monthly
salary of 120 - 130, up to 200 thousand drams". Saravan, Saralandj and
Ughedzor don't yet have students attending geology or mining courses,
but here too Geoteam offered to cover tuition fees of geology students,
which has considerably raised interest towards these disciplines. To
complete the picture, here territory occupied by Geoteam on a rental
basis totals 1563 hectares, on the same conditions.
Neither Saravan, nor Sarlandj or Ughedzor had any industrial units
before. "The main occuation is livestock farming. Opportuinites are
multiple - plenty of rich alpine meadows. But that doesn't attract
too much people these days".
With the assistance of Geoteam, Babayan plans to improve the drinking
water system, not in Saravan alone. The village of Ughedzor, with
the highest location of the three, is abandoned in winter - the trail
leading to the village gets completely cut off. Living in summer is
little better, with a lack of access to drinking water. Pipes that
were laid to Ughedzor five decades ago, have almost completely rusted
through. "We keep patching them up, which results in a jumble of
different pipes. Some are plastic, some are asbestos, some iron and
cast iron. As to the road condition, nobody ever wants to reach the
village, even to collect taxes. Nobody wants to break his car: there
is 7 km of a very poor road, of which 2 km with no paved road at all".
The village has 35 families, and produces some five tons of quality
milk yearly. Last summer the villagers have agreed with Ashtarak-Kat,
one of the leading Armenian dairy producers, about milk collection.
But the process is hampered for the same reason - they're too hard
to reach".
Geoteam hasn't mined a single ton of gold ore yet. Still, neighboring
communities started to collect their share. The most valuable part
of it is perhaps the shortest road to work - not to Yerevan. And not
abroad. But to the next mountain. In that case, is it really infertile?
From: A. Papazian
Aram Gareginyan, ArmInfo
ArmInfo
2011-01-26 06:10:00
Somehow this mountain got the name Amulsar, which translates from
Armenian as "infertile mountain". There is plenty of treeless mountains
around, so why be so choosy about that particular one?
Anyway, there are no trees on it, but there is gold ore below.
It's going to take 3 - 5 years before Lydian International from
Britain, through its Armenian subsidiary, Geoteam, starts to mine it.
But the mountain has already become a workplace for drivers, laborers
and technicians from the three surrounding villages - Gndevaz and
Saravan of Vayots Dzor province and Gorhayk of Syunik. The rural
municipality of Saravan includes three villages - Saravan itself,
Saralandj and Ugedzor. Hence, at least partial solution of rural
unemployment in five remote villages, 170 - 180 km away from the
capital city, Yerevan.
>>From Gndevaz, Geoteam employs around 20 people. "They work at the
probe laboratory and the exploration camp", says the head of Gndevaz,
Hayrapet Lazarian. "When the year begins, we hold a meeting, where
the general director of Geoteam, Hayk Aloyan, lays out the action plan
for the year. Camp manager assembles a list of vacancies, and people
can apply, stating professional abilities they possess - in welding,
electrical repairs or whatever. The company recruits them according
to its needs. Some have already specialized - say, as drilling machine
or probe lab operators". Well, what have been electricians or welders
doing in a village before Geoteam came? "Most have been employed on
a local poultry plant, which has closed down temporarily. I'm glad
our people have another job opportunity at home".
The territory explored by Geoteam falls within the boundaries of
Gndevaz, Saravan and Gorhayk municipalities. A distant land of little
agricultural value is out of any demand. Its yearly rent rate was
defined at 700 dram (about $2) per hectare by the State. Geoteam rents
it for 6 thousand dram per hectare in all the three municipalities.
"Within our administrative borders, Geoteam rents a little above
430 hectares. The overall entry to our municipal cant' be called
unbelievably high. But for us, it changes a lot. One can always make
a good use of that money, even though a lot has already been done".
>>From the outside, Gndevaz looks relatively well - in part, due to
contributions of its wealthy natives. One of them, Ashot Arsenyan,
owns the mineral water plant of Jermuk, one of the most recognizable
Armenian trademarks. That assistance secured a constant gas supply
from as far back as 1997, and helped to improve irrigation channels
last year. "We are most thankful to the people whose efforts made that
possible. But unemployment still remains our primary concern. Luckily,
the resort town of Jermuk is nearby, providing us some occupation -
both through the mineral water plant and hotels". On top of that,
apricot, the trademark of Armenia, could be called staple commodity
for Gndevaz. There, they ripen in September, long after the majority
of the crop in the lowlands of Ararat valley is harvested and
marketed. Therefore it meets no competition, both at home and abroad.
"We've been exporting it successfully to Moscow, and we think about
expanding our orchards". Truly, one can call apricot another kind of
gold on the foot of Amulsar.
>>From Gndevaz, we drive across the mountain to our next destination,
the village of Gorhayk in the neighboring province of Syunik. The
village is not as well off as Gndevaz, but its municipality head,
Arustam Arustamyan, has got vision and projects for the future,
both connected with Geoteam and standalone ones. Geoteam has been
partnering with Gorhayk for 5 years. "When they came to start working
in 2006, we first offered them warehouse premises", he said. "Then we
assembled the residents of the village and agreed with the company
on the process of employment and the enlistment of our people. From
then on, we started to work closely together". The first assistance
provided by Geoteam to Gorhayk, even before the exploration started,
was the 600 000 dram's contribution to Gorhayk's 3 mln AMD co-founding
of the World Bank's Municipal Water and Wastewater Project.
"Afterwards they helped to restore the municipal hall, which had
been standing uncovered for 7 - 8 years - its roof had been blown
off by the wind. Geoteam also assisted us in acquiring equipment for
our healthcare center". Here the company rents for exploration 1026
hectares, at the same rate of 6 000 AMD per hectare.
Today, you can easily tell Gorhayk from other villages of Syunik:
it's the only village in the whole province to arrange regular street
sanitation. "We've been doing it for three years, and people couldn't
get accustomed to it for a long time. Now they have incorporated
the idea that they can have the same facilities that are available
in cities. Garbage is collected weekly, and this is quite enough -
part of our household waste, for example, vegetable peelings, is
used as a livestock feed". The assistance of Geoteam also included
renovation of 18-km road from Gorhayk to Amulsar, used by a dozen
of neighboring villages, and rehabilitation of 4 km of roads within
Gorhayk. If employment in Gorhayk is as big a concern as in Gndevaz,
here too it's been significantly eased.
During the drilling season, from early spring to late fall, the
company employs 35 - 37 people from Gorhayk, mainly young people. "We
are happy to have them stay at home and not leaving to find a job
elsewhere. University students from our village, who major in geology
or mining, get full tuition scholarships from Geoteam. We have both
those who initially entered those departments and transferees. It's
good for them to master a profession with which to be employed at
home. People will definitely return home if they see opportunities for
a decent life. Last year, three families, who had left for Russia,
resettled at the homes they had abandoned. Years ago, one couldn't
have imagined it".
Arustam Arustamyan has a whole set of plans to improve the life
of Gorhayk. He thinks of upgrading the quality of pasturelands,
seeding alfalfa along with feeding livestock on natural pastures,
and of rehabilitating a small cheesemaking factory located on Amulsar,
to process milk on the spot.
Our jorney ends at Saravan. High organizational skills and personal
efforts of the village head, Simon Babayan, helped the people to
manage some of their difficulties on their own - in some cases,
on do-it-yourself basis, which proved to be cost effective.
>>From Saravan, Geoteam recruits 16 - 17 people. Here too selection was
made to support the young and not-yet-married. "Livestock breeding is
not very popular today, and young boys, returning home from military
service, preferred to move to urban areas. Today, they get a monthly
salary of 120 - 130, up to 200 thousand drams". Saravan, Saralandj and
Ughedzor don't yet have students attending geology or mining courses,
but here too Geoteam offered to cover tuition fees of geology students,
which has considerably raised interest towards these disciplines. To
complete the picture, here territory occupied by Geoteam on a rental
basis totals 1563 hectares, on the same conditions.
Neither Saravan, nor Sarlandj or Ughedzor had any industrial units
before. "The main occuation is livestock farming. Opportuinites are
multiple - plenty of rich alpine meadows. But that doesn't attract
too much people these days".
With the assistance of Geoteam, Babayan plans to improve the drinking
water system, not in Saravan alone. The village of Ughedzor, with
the highest location of the three, is abandoned in winter - the trail
leading to the village gets completely cut off. Living in summer is
little better, with a lack of access to drinking water. Pipes that
were laid to Ughedzor five decades ago, have almost completely rusted
through. "We keep patching them up, which results in a jumble of
different pipes. Some are plastic, some are asbestos, some iron and
cast iron. As to the road condition, nobody ever wants to reach the
village, even to collect taxes. Nobody wants to break his car: there
is 7 km of a very poor road, of which 2 km with no paved road at all".
The village has 35 families, and produces some five tons of quality
milk yearly. Last summer the villagers have agreed with Ashtarak-Kat,
one of the leading Armenian dairy producers, about milk collection.
But the process is hampered for the same reason - they're too hard
to reach".
Geoteam hasn't mined a single ton of gold ore yet. Still, neighboring
communities started to collect their share. The most valuable part
of it is perhaps the shortest road to work - not to Yerevan. And not
abroad. But to the next mountain. In that case, is it really infertile?
From: A. Papazian