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AZERBAIJAN'S PRESIDENT AWARDED FAMILY STAKE IN GOLD FIELDS
http://hetq.am/eng/news/22663/azerbaijans-president-awarded-family-stake-in-gold-fields.html
21:58, January 24, 2013
Novruz Allahverdiyev, 40, lives in a mud house in the village of
Chovdar, a small Soviet-era mining town in rural Azerbaijan. He is one
of 800,000 displaced persons from the war with Armenia that battered
his native Nagorno Karabakh region in the early nineties.He and 60
other families found shelter and a place to farm in the mountainous
western region of Dashkesan. Like many of the displaced, Allahverdiyev
is patriotic and the walls of his poor home are plastered with
pages from an aging calendar featuring portraits of Ilham Aliyev,
the president of Azerbaijan and his late father.
Allahverdiyev has faith the president will solve the latest problem
his family and his community face. A British mining company has taken
over some of his land and blocked one of two streams his village
relies on for water. He believes the president will make sure he is
paid for his losses.
Villagers in Chovdar now have only one water source since the
mine blocked the other stream Such faith may be misplaced. What
Allahverdiyev doesn't know is that the -president and his family own a
share of the new mine threatening to swallow his town. The UK company
is actually a front for the first family who stand to add to their
already enormous wealth, estimated to be in the billions of dollars,
through the mining operation.
The New Mine
According to an October 2011 press release , the Azeri Ministry of
Environment believes there are 44 tons of gold and 164 tons of silver
under Chovdar, worth more than US$2.5 billion at current prices.
AIMROC (Azerbaijan International Mineral Resources Operating Company
Ltd), a consortium of one UK and three offshore companies, has begun
building the infrastructure needed to exploit that mineral wealth and
full-scale mining is scheduled to start later this year. Chovdar is
one of >six goldfieldsthe government awarded AIMROC and the first to
start mining operations.
But while Chovdar locals blame the "ingilis", the Azerbaijani name
for Englishmen, the truth about the cause of their troubles is quite
different. AIMROC owns a 70 percent stake in the six mines and the
Azerbaijani government the remaining 30 percent.
Chovdar in western Azerbaijan AIMROC is a joint venture of four
companies: Londex Resources S.A, Willy and Meyris S.A., Fargate Mining
Corporation, and Globex İnternational LLP. All are shell companies
and it is not clear if any are backed by mining companies. According
to Azerbaijani officials, all were set up specifically for the deal. A
fifth company, MINDECO, is the official project supervisor but has
no ownership. MINDECO (Mitsui Mineral Development Engineering Co Ltd)
is a mining engineering company owned by Japanese giant Mitsui Mining
and Smelting Co. according to its website.
From: Baghdasarian
http://hetq.am/eng/news/22663/azerbaijans-president-awarded-family-stake-in-gold-fields.html
21:58, January 24, 2013
Novruz Allahverdiyev, 40, lives in a mud house in the village of
Chovdar, a small Soviet-era mining town in rural Azerbaijan. He is one
of 800,000 displaced persons from the war with Armenia that battered
his native Nagorno Karabakh region in the early nineties.He and 60
other families found shelter and a place to farm in the mountainous
western region of Dashkesan. Like many of the displaced, Allahverdiyev
is patriotic and the walls of his poor home are plastered with
pages from an aging calendar featuring portraits of Ilham Aliyev,
the president of Azerbaijan and his late father.
Allahverdiyev has faith the president will solve the latest problem
his family and his community face. A British mining company has taken
over some of his land and blocked one of two streams his village
relies on for water. He believes the president will make sure he is
paid for his losses.
Villagers in Chovdar now have only one water source since the
mine blocked the other stream Such faith may be misplaced. What
Allahverdiyev doesn't know is that the -president and his family own a
share of the new mine threatening to swallow his town. The UK company
is actually a front for the first family who stand to add to their
already enormous wealth, estimated to be in the billions of dollars,
through the mining operation.
The New Mine
According to an October 2011 press release , the Azeri Ministry of
Environment believes there are 44 tons of gold and 164 tons of silver
under Chovdar, worth more than US$2.5 billion at current prices.
AIMROC (Azerbaijan International Mineral Resources Operating Company
Ltd), a consortium of one UK and three offshore companies, has begun
building the infrastructure needed to exploit that mineral wealth and
full-scale mining is scheduled to start later this year. Chovdar is
one of >six goldfieldsthe government awarded AIMROC and the first to
start mining operations.
But while Chovdar locals blame the "ingilis", the Azerbaijani name
for Englishmen, the truth about the cause of their troubles is quite
different. AIMROC owns a 70 percent stake in the six mines and the
Azerbaijani government the remaining 30 percent.
Chovdar in western Azerbaijan AIMROC is a joint venture of four
companies: Londex Resources S.A, Willy and Meyris S.A., Fargate Mining
Corporation, and Globex İnternational LLP. All are shell companies
and it is not clear if any are backed by mining companies. According
to Azerbaijani officials, all were set up specifically for the deal. A
fifth company, MINDECO, is the official project supervisor but has
no ownership. MINDECO (Mitsui Mineral Development Engineering Co Ltd)
is a mining engineering company owned by Japanese giant Mitsui Mining
and Smelting Co. according to its website.
From: Baghdasarian