‘GOLDEN’ RESPONSIBILITY OF IBERIAN

ArmInfo Agency, Armenia
Oct 6 2007

The history of gold extraction in Meghri region has old-established
traditions – gold was mined here even in the days of Alexander the
Great. However, the newest period of gold extraction counts about ten
years. In 1999, the right for exploitation of the Lichkvaz-Tey and
Terterasar gold mines was transferred to "Sipan-1" Company, which had
built a gold-mining factory and operated four years until it was sold
to the Australian Iberian Resources. In 2007, the latter joined the
Tamaya Resources Company by amalgamation and, appearingly, a new page
of the "gold" history opens at present in Meghri. As the editorial
office has become aware, the Tamaya Resources Company announced an
international contest to audit extension of the mine and construction
of a new factory. It is scheduled to carry out the audit on several
directions: ecology, health, labour safety and the social area. We have
tried to clarify the purposes and objectives of this undertaking from
Head of the Armenian branch of the Iberian Resources Manvel Bagratyan.

– Mr. Bagratyan, please, introduce the Company’s plans for the
production extension, first.

– After amalgamation of Iberian and Tamaya in the beginning, 2007, we
decided to extend extraction and production. Presently, the production
opportunities are limited to 90,000 tons of ore a year with an average
concentration of 9,6 grams of gold per 1 ton. As a result of extension,
we schedule to process 800,000 tons per annum to finally receive
100,000 ounces of gold. This is rather a substantive production
indicator, which our relevant approach on all the directions of our
activity. In view of this, we schedule to determine an optimal policy
of the Company’s activity on all directions via expert assessments.

– After a sorrowful experience of other gold-mining companies in
Armenia, such an approach is rather curious. What does the project
imply specifically?

– There is nothing unusual in what we have planned. The advanced
experience of similar productions of the developed countries indicates
necessity of a full-scale audit. In this project, we have set a task to
the experts to reveal the possible discrepancies between our and best
world practices in line with the standards of such organizations as the
World Bank, the International Financial Corporation and others. For
example, we schedule to bring the social-economic aspects of our
activity to the standards of the World Financial Corporation. We
also intend to get an assessment of our current corporative liability
and develop a strategy of involvement of the region’s population. In
general, the project includes a wide spectrum of tasks from assessment
of the environmental systems control to determination of the policy of
preservation of the historical-cultural heritage. As for the aspects
of health service and labour safety, they will be determined with
respect to our employees and the local population.

– As a rule, gold mining and extraction envisages solution of serious
ecological problems, first of all. Which of them will be considered
at this stage?

– In fact, the nature becomes one of the first victims in case of
improper or irresponsive approach. Fully realizing our responsibility,
we attach primary importance to solution of these problems. The audit
programme embodied an impressive list of environmental problems:
exploitation of mines, ore displacement and processing, control of
tailing dumps, safe and long-term exploitation of natural resources,
control liquid wastes, recultivation of territories of the open
mine and storages , etc. We systemized the influence of the mine
exploitation on the environment by four groups: the total ecological
influence, environment contamination, possibility of contamination
of the air and water pools. Every group contains ten parameters each,
which determine different risks of our project’s specificity. In view
of this, the experts are set a task on revelation of omissions in the
area of ecology and the social constituent of our activity. Moreover,
they have to determine the compliance of our activity to the national
legislation, as well as the permits and licenses we have got. In
addition, we intend to receive an assessment of compliance with the
international standards.

Based on this material, the auditors will be set a task on introduction
of a list of proposals for elimination of non-conformances.

– What company, will carry out an audit – a local or a foreign one?

– The Tamaya Resources announced an open international tender for the
audit conduction, where our requirements were marked, among which
is the ISO certification on environmental control and ecological
assessment of mines and the relevant organizations. As a result, we
have gathered a group of experts, well-known enough in this sphere,
who will arrive in Armenia one of these days. Head of the group is an
auditor of the Institute of Environment Management and Assessment of
Great Britain Alister Cadden. The group also includes two profiled
specialists more, Sophia Grahan and Martin Broderick, as well as
an international adviser and social analyst Paul Lorence. Their
resumes, the work experience in similar projects, including the
British Petroleum and the Shell, instill confidence that we shall
get professional answers to all the questions we are interested in.

– Are you ready to accept all the proposals of experts, being unaware
of them beforehand?

– We are ready to accept any professional proposals related to the
activity of the Iberian and Tamaya, which will be aimed at enhancement
of the level of solution of the problems of ecology, health service,
labour safety and others. At last, the expediency of extension of
the mine and construction of a new plant will be determined based
on the audit results. Preliminary investigations will be carried
out before that, with involvement of all the interested parties: the
Company itself, the authorized state structures and the public. All the
alternative proposals on organization of one or another tasks will be
taken into account at this stage. This concerns not only the future
but also the past and the present. The ecology problems have always
been and still are of exclusive importance for Tamaya. At present,
we have one ecologist in the state, however, we envisage to establish
an environmental department in the near future. Water monitoring is
carried out by our order, and we schedule to start monitoring of the
air pool.

– Otherwise saying, your are ready to listen to the opinion of not
only the foreign experts but also the local organizations, isn’t it?

– Undoubtedly.

From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress