Thursday, February 21 2019 15:35

ArmInfo.The Ministry of Nature Protection of Armenia is negotiating with the European Union to attract a grant of 5 million euros to solve the problems of  tailing drumps. Minister of Nature Protection of Armenia, Eric  Grigoryan, announced this on February 21 at a government meeting.

According to him, according to the new program, it is envisaged to  carry out the recultivation of the land around the tailing dumps  inherited from the Soviet times. The project also plans to monitor  the state of the air.

To note, in Armenia there are 22 tailing dumps, of which 8 are closed  and 13 continue to operate. Back in 2014, the Ministry of Energy of  Armenia submitted a project for processing tailing dumps of metal  mines, estimated at $ 200 million. Then a memorandum of intent was  approved, in accordance with which the government planned to  implement a corresponding program jointly with Cronimet Mining JSC,  Zangezur Copper Molybdenum Combine CJSC , VSEI group of companies and  ALYOTIG LLC.  The project proposed to carry out efficient and deep  processing of tailings and dumps of rocks formed during the  extraction of metallic minerals. In May 2015, the government returned  to this issue by approving the draft law "On the investment program  for processing industrial waste accumulated and accumulated in the  tailing drumps of Vokhchi, Pkhrut, Artsvanik, as well as, as a result  of the activities of the Zangezur Copper Molybdenum Combine (ZCMC).  However, this since it was no longer about 200, but about $ 240  million of investments necessary for the construction of a plant for  processing tailing dumps from metal mines in Armenia. The bill noted  that in ZCMC tailing dumps moment have accumulated more than 300  million tons of industrial waste annually replenished by another  18-20 million tons, creating a serious environmental problem.

The implementation of the program was entrusted to ALYOTIG LLC, which  undertook to build a plant for processing industrial waste tailings  with a production capacity of 12.5 tons annually, and at the second  stage covering the time interval in 2019-2025 to bring the capacity  of the plant to the processing volumes of 25 million tons of waste.  At the end of June 2015, the National Assembly passed a law on an  investment program for processing industrial waste from Vokhchi,  Pkhrut, Artsvanik's storage facilities, as well as from the Zangezur  Copper-Molybdenum Combine, in accordance with which ALYOTIG received  the named storage. However, six months after the adoption of the law,  it became known that ALYOTIG LLC had managed to go bankrupt in the  past short time. As a result, a large-scale investment project was  never implemented.