ARMENIA’S PROSECUTOR GENERAL’S OFFICE DIRECTED SUIT TO ECONOMIC COURT AGAINST ARARAT GOLD RECOVERY COMPANY

ARKA News Agency
Aug 2 2007
Armenia

YEREVAN, August 2. /ARKA/. Deputy Prosecutor General of Armenia Gagik
Jangiryan directed an suit to the Economic Court of Armenia against
Ararat Gold Recovery Company (AGRC).

The press secretary of the Prosecutor General’s Office Sona Truzyan
said, that the suit contained a request to dissolve ahead of time the
agreement between the RA Ministry of Environmental Protections and the
Company AGRC "On transferring for exploitation the Sotk gold deposit"
signed on March 13, 1999.

Jangiryan also asks to stop the Company’s rights by the special
license for bosom using issued by the RA Ministry of Trade and Economic
Development on June 7, 2004.

Besides, he asked the Economic Court to exact AMD 4bln 6.1mln and
$10mln from the Company for the state budget of Armenia, and for
providing the suit before the beginning of the legal proceedings
to put under a ban the Company’s property and accounts totaling the
above-mentioned sum.

AGRC Director Vardan Vardanyan told ARKA that the Company was aware
of the suit, but had no information about the terms of applying to
the court, as the Prosecutor General’s Office was preparing definite
documents.

"Only the court can comment on the decision of the Prosecutor General’s
Office, if there is one. The Company will follow the development
of the events: we will wait for the suit and notification from the
Prosecutor General’s Office, after that our lawyers will take up the
case," Vardanyan said.

Ararat Gold Recovery Company (AGRC) was founded on June 24, 1998 and
exploits the Sotk and Meghradzor mines of Armenia. The AGRC owner is
the Indian Company Vedanta Resources, the activities of which have
recently displeased Armenia.

The Government has suspicions that the Company overrates the investment
indices of the mine elaboration and hides the information about the
real reserves of gold.

On July 24, 2007, the State Inspection on Nature Protection stated
its intention to conduct a supplementary inspection on the volume of
bosom usage in the AGRC from 2004 up to present. The reason for the
inspection is the revelation of illegal mining of 550 kg of gold by
the AGRC, the owners of which still deny the information.

From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress