Yerevan July 31
Alina Hovhannisyan. On July 30 at 16:00 on the territory of the Amulsar program and outside it, in particular on the heap leaching site and in the territory adjacent to the refinery, a fire broke out, which spread to the construction site of Amulsar. As the press service of the company reports, the fire was repaid by the firefighters of the Ministry of Emergency Situations and Lydian Armenia employees within a few hours. The causes of the fire are still unknown, in addition, the possible size of the damage caused is not calculated. The fire was extinguished, due to the use of equipment belonging to the company Lydian Armenia.
"In view of the fact that the fire was not detected and localized in time, the fire spread widely and could turn into a serious ecological catastrophe, in terms of destroying biodiversity and damage to the environment," the source noted.
To note, the roads leading to the Amulsar deposit have been blocked for more than a month by a group of activists who oppose the exploitation of the field. The police, at that, do not interfere. To recall, Lydian Armenia is a subsidiary of British Lydian International, whose shareholders are also large international institutional investors from the United States, Great Britain, a number of European countries, including EBRD. The Amulsar project is the largest industrial project in Armenia for the development of the Amulsar gold deposit at a total cost of $ 370 million. In August 2016, a project for the construction and development of the field was launched. Preliminary work has been carried out since 2006. The life of the Amulsar deposit will be 10 years and 4 months, an annual average of 200,000 ounces of gold (about 10 million tons of ore) is planned. The company's shares are quoted on the Toronto Stock Exchange. Amulsar deposit is the second largest in Armenia.