357 THOUSAND HA FOREST TO BE CUT DURING TEGHUT MINING

Panorama.am
17:48 29/11/2007

During the mining of Teghut mines, 357 thousand ha of forest will
be cut, and the water basin will go down by 4.73 percent. The mine
will bring $100 million proceeds annually. This was said by Hovanes
Nikoghosyan, environmental department head of Mountain Metallurgy
Institute during a discussion on Teghut mines. In his words, the
proceeds will total some 3.2 bln drams according to initial estimates
and 1700 new employment places will be opened during the commissioning.

Asked by Tatul Manaseryan, ex deputy of parliament, if the information
that some 100 people have refused to provide their land is true, Sahak
Karapetyan, representative of Valex Group said: "105 people refused to
leave their land but by the government decision November 1 these areas
are considered territories of public interest and the land will be
alienated." He also said the compensation will be in accordance with
the market prices. Tatul Manaseryan recalled that 200-250 villages
disappeared due to such actions during the Soviet era and now that
number is 300. To that, the representative of Vallex group said that
the community residents will not leave their homes, on the contrary,
they will increase in numbers since new employment places will open.