ARMENIA: TRYING TO FIND A BALANCE BETWEEN ECONOMIC NEED AND ENVIRONMENTAL RESPONSIBILITY
Gayane Abrahamyan

Eurasianet

June 3, 2009

A Russian-owned mining company’s plan to build a gold-processing
plant near Armenia’s legendary Lake Sevan has raised concerns about
additional contamination of the lake, the source for 90 percent of
Armenia’s fresh water supplies.

The proposed plant, to be situated about 10 kilometers away from
Sevan, would reportedly include a reservoir for cyanide and toxic
chemicals and a dump for cyanide waste. Environmentalists fear that
the toxins could seep into underground water conduits and enter
the 1,200-square-meter body of water, one of the world’s largest
high-altitude lakes.

Fresh hazards to Sevan could mean fresh damage to the Ararat Valley,
which provides about 70 percent of Armenia’s fruit and vegetables and
which takes needed irrigation waters from Sevan. "Armenia will cease
to exist, if the lake is contaminated," commented former environmental
protection minister Karine Danielian. The National Academy of Sciences’
Lake Sevan Center stated that it has no information on the lake’s
current level of contamination.

The GeoProMining Company, headquartered in Moscow, and with copper,
gold and other mines in Armenia, Georgia and Russia, wants to
build the processing plant at its Sotk gold mine, 10 kilometers from
Sevan. Reducing transportation costs for ore processing is its reported
goal. Currently, Sotk’s ore must be transported 263 kilometers south
to another GeoProMining processing center.

In theory, environmentalists contend, the plan for a Sevan processing
center should be a non-starter. Article 10 of Armenia’s 2001 Law
on Lake Sevan bans the establishment of processing plants in the
lake’s basin.

The government has not yet officially endorsed the project, but
both the Ministry of Environmental Protection and the Ministry of
Regional Management confirm that they have discussed the proposed
processing center.

Neither ministry, however, has yet received a written project proposal
from GeoProMining, ministry representatives told EurasiaNet.

Both the environmental protection ministry and GeoProMining refused
to discuss the project or to address potential risks highlighted
by environmental activists. "As Minister Ara Harutiunian has said
several times, we have not approved any project and all this panic is
senseless," Deputy Environmental Protection Minister Simon Papian said.

GeoProMining displayed similar reticence on the issue. Vardan
Vardanian, chairman of the board of directors of the company’s
Armenian subsidiary, GeoProMining Gold, declined an interview request
with EurasiaNet and later put an embargo on comments by a company
spokesperson.

The company’s reluctance to discuss the project has only fired
environmentalists’ criticisms.

Activists contend that the environmental protection ministry’s
assurances of caution will carry little weight in the face of a
December 2008 pledge from GeoProMining to invest $350 million into
Armenia’s gold-mining sector between 2009 and 2011. Precious and
non-ferrous metals are among Armenia’s top exports.

"They gave similar assurances regarding the [Armenian Copper Program’s]
copper-molybdenum mine exploitation and the plant mine’s construction
in Teghut," commented Inga Zarafian, chairperson of Yerevan’s Ecolur
information center, in reference to the ministry. "They promised
they would not allow the logging of 670 hectares of forest, but they
approved the plan and we lost the best forests in Armenia." [For
background see the Eurasia Insight archive].

Environmentalists had initially looked to the Law on Lake Sevan to
stop GeoProMining’s plans. They now contend that parliament may soon
amend the law – under government instruction – to clear legal hurdles
for the gold-processing plant. Opposition Heritage Party members of
parliament echo that view.

Khachik Harutiunian, chairperson of the National Assembly’s Committee
for Agricultural and Environmental Protection Issues, however, told
EurasiaNet that such amendments are not on parliament’s agenda.

For its part, GeoProMining maintains that it shares the concern for
Lake Sevan’s environment. In an April 26 television interview with
Yerkir Media TV, GeoProGold Board Chairman Vardanian stated that the
company plans to use mining technologies that will eliminate the risk
of environmental damage to Sevan. "We will refuse to exploit the mine
and will stop work if there is the slightest [environmental] hazard,"
he said.

The former director of the Sevan National Park, however, argues
that the area’s landslides and seismic activity may trump any such
technologies. "No one can guarantee the [toxic waste] dump against
an earthquake.

The smallest crack is enough to have the toxins penetrate into
underground water," said Gagik Sukhudian. Fears of potential shelling
from nearby Azerbaijani army positions underline that danger, he added.

To identify potential environmental ramifications, GeoProMining has
commissioned research by the National Academy of Sciences’ Institute
of Hydro-Ecology and Ichthyology. The Academy declined to discuss
the findings with EurasiaNet.

The amount of waste likely to be generated by the proposed
gold-processing plant has not yet been defined, but former
environmental protection minister Danielian estimates the total
at 100 million tons over 10 years. GeoProMining representatives
did not provide a figure. It remains uncertain whether
GeoProMining-commissioned research can clarify the environmental-impact
picture.

Editor’s Note: Gayane Abrahamyan is a reporter for ArmeniaNow.com
in Yerevan.