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RISKS OF MINING INDUSTRY CONCENTRATED IN MEGHRADZOR RESORT ZONE
http://hetq.am/eng/news/21856/risks-of-mining-industry-concentrated-in-meghradzor-resort-zone.html
13:39, December 25, 2012
"EcoLur" Informational NGO has sent a letter to Nature Protection
Ministry, which says, "Meghradzor resort zone turned out to be in
the epicenter of hazardous project implementation - cyanic plant,
Meghradzor gold mine opencast development and Tezhsar nepheline-syenite
mine.
As EcoLur learnt, on 25 December Nature Protection Minister intends to
meet with the administration of Alumina Corporation on the issue of
Tezhsar nepheline-syenite mine. The company is persistently holding
public hearings and displays project documents, which don't comply
with the existing extremely weak standards of environmental expertise.
Meanwhile the Nature Protection Ministry accepts documentation and
recognized the hearings as lawful. Moreover, though the company didn't
turn up at the hearings it organized in May, the Ministry is ready
to recognize these hearings lawful as well. The last discussion was
held on 21 December, and the public recognized it unlawful.
Another hazardous project planned to be implemented in Meghradzor
Village is the construction project of cyanic plant on gold extraction
submitted by Meghradzor Gold Company - Director and Owner Vardan
Margaryan, project developer - Hovik Nikaghosyan, Head of Environmental
Department of "Lernametalurgiakan Institute".
Public hearings were held twice - on 5 and 17 December.
Nevertheless, Vardan Margaryan and Village Head Karlen Hovhannisyan
gathered the villagers on 23 December without making any prior
statements and told them that the project doesn't bear any risks and
they considered this meeting to be the third public hearings. Two
days before, on 21 Decemberm Meghradzor villagers met with EcoLur
in Hrazdan and expressed their concerns that, as a matter of fact,
risks exist and asked us to help them to organize public hearings with
an invited expert. The Village Head interfered into the conversation
and told EcoLur that talks about risks is misinformation.
Then, on 23 December, there was a phone call from Meghradzor to
EcoLur, where the villagers said that pressure was exercised on them
and neither the village head nor the director wanted to discuss the
project with invited organizations.
"We proposed to organize a voting among the villagers, but the company
director didn't agree. None of our proposals was accepted. When we
asked to hold public hearings with invited NGOs, we were told that
meeting was a public hearing and that the company has its own experts,"
the villagers told us.
We do know their names, but we don't publish them on their request for
safety reasons. The problem is that ordinary employees of the company
are involved in the clash of interests, who think that farmers want
to deprive them of their work.
EcoLur thinks that the process of public discussions on these very
projects passed into non-transparency stage, personal arrangements
and high pressure on public and local villagers, which is fraught
with high corruption risks and law violations.
We call for Nature Protection Ministry and personally Minister
Aram Harutyunyan, who bears service and political responsibility,
to take the process of public discussion on these given projects out
of private talks, to make them transparent, to give thorough expert
assessment and to organize official public hearings, where the opinion
of invited experts, villagers and independent experts will be taken
into consideration together with all existing risks.
We also inform Nature Protection Ministry that closed development of
Meghradzor mine has long been changed to opencast development. In
this regard, we consider it necessary to carry out the examination
of Meghradzor Gold Company documentation submitted for environmental
expertise on changing development method of Meghradzor gold mine.
We would like to ask to provide the following documents: announcement
about holding public hearings, the opinion of stakeholders, timeframes
of holding public hearings, providing information about opencast
development and the opinion of the environmental expertise."
"Ecolur" Informational NGO
http://hetq.am/eng/news/21856/risks-of-mining-industry-concentrated-in-meghradzor-resort-zone.html
13:39, December 25, 2012
"EcoLur" Informational NGO has sent a letter to Nature Protection
Ministry, which says, "Meghradzor resort zone turned out to be in
the epicenter of hazardous project implementation - cyanic plant,
Meghradzor gold mine opencast development and Tezhsar nepheline-syenite
mine.
As EcoLur learnt, on 25 December Nature Protection Minister intends to
meet with the administration of Alumina Corporation on the issue of
Tezhsar nepheline-syenite mine. The company is persistently holding
public hearings and displays project documents, which don't comply
with the existing extremely weak standards of environmental expertise.
Meanwhile the Nature Protection Ministry accepts documentation and
recognized the hearings as lawful. Moreover, though the company didn't
turn up at the hearings it organized in May, the Ministry is ready
to recognize these hearings lawful as well. The last discussion was
held on 21 December, and the public recognized it unlawful.
Another hazardous project planned to be implemented in Meghradzor
Village is the construction project of cyanic plant on gold extraction
submitted by Meghradzor Gold Company - Director and Owner Vardan
Margaryan, project developer - Hovik Nikaghosyan, Head of Environmental
Department of "Lernametalurgiakan Institute".
Public hearings were held twice - on 5 and 17 December.
Nevertheless, Vardan Margaryan and Village Head Karlen Hovhannisyan
gathered the villagers on 23 December without making any prior
statements and told them that the project doesn't bear any risks and
they considered this meeting to be the third public hearings. Two
days before, on 21 Decemberm Meghradzor villagers met with EcoLur
in Hrazdan and expressed their concerns that, as a matter of fact,
risks exist and asked us to help them to organize public hearings with
an invited expert. The Village Head interfered into the conversation
and told EcoLur that talks about risks is misinformation.
Then, on 23 December, there was a phone call from Meghradzor to
EcoLur, where the villagers said that pressure was exercised on them
and neither the village head nor the director wanted to discuss the
project with invited organizations.
"We proposed to organize a voting among the villagers, but the company
director didn't agree. None of our proposals was accepted. When we
asked to hold public hearings with invited NGOs, we were told that
meeting was a public hearing and that the company has its own experts,"
the villagers told us.
We do know their names, but we don't publish them on their request for
safety reasons. The problem is that ordinary employees of the company
are involved in the clash of interests, who think that farmers want
to deprive them of their work.
EcoLur thinks that the process of public discussions on these very
projects passed into non-transparency stage, personal arrangements
and high pressure on public and local villagers, which is fraught
with high corruption risks and law violations.
We call for Nature Protection Ministry and personally Minister
Aram Harutyunyan, who bears service and political responsibility,
to take the process of public discussion on these given projects out
of private talks, to make them transparent, to give thorough expert
assessment and to organize official public hearings, where the opinion
of invited experts, villagers and independent experts will be taken
into consideration together with all existing risks.
We also inform Nature Protection Ministry that closed development of
Meghradzor mine has long been changed to opencast development. In
this regard, we consider it necessary to carry out the examination
of Meghradzor Gold Company documentation submitted for environmental
expertise on changing development method of Meghradzor gold mine.
We would like to ask to provide the following documents: announcement
about holding public hearings, the opinion of stakeholders, timeframes
of holding public hearings, providing information about opencast
development and the opinion of the environmental expertise."
"Ecolur" Informational NGO