APPETITES OF GEOPROMINING COMPANY TO BE CONSIDERED BY COMMISSION ON LAKE SEVAN
ArmInfo
2009-03-27 18:06:00
ArmInfo. The appetites of GeoProMining company will be considered by
the Commission on Lake Sevan. Almost one year ago the company said
that it was going to build an ore mining and processing factory near
the lake even though the law on Lake Sevan prohibits such activities.
President of the Association for the Sake of Sustainable Development
Karine Daniyelyan says that this problem will be discussed by the
Committee on Lake Sevan. The Committee has already discussed the
illegal plans of GeoProMining and its chairman Vladimir Movsissyan
strongly criticized them. "Several months ago the Committee
held a guest meeting in the Sevan region. The commissioners and
representatives of public organizations were unanimous: the law
cannot not be violated. That’s why we are surprised and concerned
that some dark forces keep trying to push this project through. The
public strongly objects to these activities and our ecologists hope
to win in this struggle."
"We very much hope that the parliament will not be forced to make
changes to the law on Lake Sevan. Still, we are actively working
to prevent any possibility of this project’s being carried out as
its implementation will kill the lake. Today, Sevan is on the verge
of extinction and such activity may have most terrible ecological
consequences not mentioning seismic risks," says Daniyelyan.
"Naturally, these people want to get rich as quickly as possible."To
note, today ecologists held a protest action in Yerevan against
construction of the GeoProMining plant near the basin of Lake
Sevan. The action participants addressed a letter to Armenian
President Serzh Sargsyan calling on him to stop the illegal activity
of GeoProMining. The letter says that the construction of the plant
will result in 100 mln tons of toxic wastes, as well as a tailing
dump with cyanide compounds and heavy metals to flow into the ground
waters of the lake.
Despite this obvious danger, a document on "Conceptual decisions
of installing gold mining plant in the area of Sotk mine with
due regard for environmental risks" was discussed at the Ministry
of Territorial Administration with participation of GeoProMining
leadership on March 2. It assesses the impact of the processing plant
in Sotk on the environment, storage of cyanides and toxic chemicals,
as well as the tailing dump. Representatives of various ministries
(including the Environment Ministry), as well as the Institute of
Geological Sciences, Institute of Eco-Noosphere Research, Institute
of Hydroecology and Ichthyology of the Armenian Academy of Sciences
took part in the discussion.
The copies of the letter were also sent to Speaker of Armenian
Parliament Hovik Abrahamyan, Prime Minister Tigran Sargsyan and
Prosecutor General Aghvan Hovsepyan.