ArmInfo.Washington is ready to assist the economic and political reforms of the new government of Armenia, which will help, by improving the business and investment environment, attract more American companies that already see the potential here. As the RA Government's press service reports, this was stated by the US Ambassador to Armenia Richard Mills during a meeting with Armenian Deputy Prime Minister Tigran Avinyan.
During the meeting, the sides discussed a number of issues of bilateral cooperation, including the continuation of investment and grant projects, the need to stimulate the tax and infrastructure systems, and touched Armenia's competitiveness in terms of participation in the new Millennium Challenge Corporation agreement. Mills promised in the foreseeable future to touch on this issue.
The US Ambassador stressed the importance of continuing the activities of Lydian-Armenia, as a major investment project.
In turn, the Deputy Prime Minister assured that the new government will conduct an impartial investigation to demonstrate the overall picture of Armenia's mining industry and its compliance with international and state standards. According to him, these inspections should be conducted in all enterprises, transparently and in a reliable form for all parties, and the production, working according to state standards, will be protected by the state.
Earlier, the Ministry of Energy Infrastructures and Natural Resources of Armenia refused to consider the issue of closing the program for development of the gold mine "Amulsar". In a letter addressed to environmental and public organizations of the country, it is noted that the right to use deposits can be suspended in case of violation of the Subsoil Code. The right to develop the Amulsar deposit granted by Lydian Armenia cannot be suspended on the basis of the conclusion of foreign organizations. According to the 51st article of the Subsoil Code, the right to subsoil development is granted after appropriate positive conclusions have been reached on the absence of environmental impact. In this context, the development program for the Amulsar deposit received a certificate of compliance of the cyanide management system with the international code. Moreover, on January 18, 2018, the official report of the International Institute for Management of Cyanide noted that regardless of the results of the independent audit, the Lidian Armenia program is in line with the principles and practice of the Cyanide Code initiative. "The project to develop the Amulsar deposit can be considered a successful experience with the application of new technologies, from the point of view of implementing responsible social and nature protection programs," the ministry said in a letter. It also emphasizes that 80% of the work has already been completed at the field. A few million cubic meters of land were excavated, 9 thousand cubic meters the ground is concreted, about 20 km of roads have been built. Work has also been done on water management, as well as most of the measures to maintain environmental standards. Ready 2 platforms for leaching, in the process of installation is the installation of layers of gypsum board and polymer geomembranes.