PRESS RELEASE
The Greens Union of Armenia
Contact: Dr. Hakob Sanasarian,
President of The Greens Union
Address: Mamikoniants St. 47-13, Yerevan, Armenia.
Telephone: (374-2) 257 -634.
US Contact: Dr. Anne Shirinian, phone/fax (732) 462-9089
E-mail: [email protected]
A FEW WORDS ABOUT MINING AND PRIVATIZATION OF MINES IN ARMENIA
August, 2005
A government Decree # N 1677-², dated December 12, 2004, privatized
the Copper-Molybdenum mine of Zangezur, by selling its shares to 3
companies. This was done under a private property law/regulation,
violating the fact that the mine was NOT a private property but a public
one – it belonged to the government. No public body or office or entity
was consulted regarding the privatization of the mine and its associated
works, such as the processing plant. By another Decree # N 1768-²,
dated December 16, 2004, the government ordered the proceeds from the
sale of the mine and its works (132 million USD) to be credited to the
extra-budgetary, foreign currency account of the Ministry of Finance and
Economics of Armenia.
Last year, in 2004, the mining works processed 8.5 million tons of raw
material and generated about 130 million USD for the government of
Armenia, according to official sources.
Meanwhile, in the towns of Meghradzor and Sotk, the privatized mines of
gold are producing the raw material, which is then moved to the “Ararat”
gold processing plant (also privatized), where gold is extracted from
the raw material. Work conditions are so inhuman at the mines that the
miners have resorted to a strike resulting in dismissals from employment
in large numbers, even though the miners’ demands were reasonable, such
as access to drinking water and toilet facilities, a certain regard for
worker safety, pay for overtime hours, living wages, compensation for
limbs lost on the job, vacation time, firings should be explained/
justified, etc. Indeed, work conditions are brutal and unsafe at the
mines; miners work at 2370 meters above sea level, where winter-time
temperatures can drop to -40deg Celsius, workers are not given a chance
for a break at the fire to get warmed and are dismissed regularly for
complaining, and, recently, the mining company has lagged in paying them
their monthly wages. Finally, according to mining experts, the company
is exploiting the mine with total disregard to conventional mining
methods, such that after the company leaves, the mines will become
useless for any further exploitation.