RUSSIA INTERESTED IN ARMENIAN URANIUM – MINISTER

Public Television of Armenia, Yerevan,
16 Feb 2007

[Presenter] [Armenian Environmental Protection Minister] Vardan
Ayvazyan wants to be on the Republican [party’s electoral] list
very much. However, it is the party’s political council that decides
whether he should be nominated or not. This uncertainty, however, will
not be an obstacle for his Union of Georgian Armenians to support the
Republican Party in the forthcoming [parliamentary] election. Besides
the election topics, Vardan Ayvazyan also spoke about the miners’
attacks on environmentalists. Will Teghut become a mine or remain a
forest? The minister also spoke about the violations revealed in gold
mines and uranium extraction in Armenia. Hermine Baghdasaryan reports.

[Vardan Ayvazyan] No organization has appealed to the Environmental
Protection Ministry of the Republic of Armenia to carry out a study
of uranium in Armenia.

[Someone’s voice] How about Global Gold?

[Ayvazyan] No, it has not.

[Someone’s voice] They showed some papers.

[Ayvazyan] No, they did not.

[Correspondent] There are significant reserves of uranium in Armenia:
this is all that is possible to learn about this radioactive material
>>From a study carried out in our country by an expedition headed
by famous Koltsovsky. We have wealth, why should we not make use of
it, especially if there are the people who are interested in it, the
environmental protection minister asks. There is only one condition:
no enrichment of uranium will ever be allowed in Armenia.

[Ayvazyan] Russia’s Atomic Energy Ministry has expressed interest in
working with the Republic of Armenia – and a special permission is
at the stage of being worked out.

[Correspondent] The minister is not aware that Russians, apart
from looking for uranium in our country, also want to extract gold
in Sodk. The attack initiated by environmentalists against the
Global Gold, which had been developing the mine until recently, is
well-grounded, according to Ayvazyan. The [Environmental Protection]
ministry has conducted two inspections of the company and found
violations in both cases. And gold is not cheap. One tonne of gold
costs 22m dollars.

[Ayvazyan] We have found 1.76 tonnes of hidden gold, 3 tonnes of
silver and 1.44 tonnes of tellurium.

From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress