Minister: In the nearest  future, the final decision will be taken on the project to develop the Amulsar deposit

ArmInfo. In the near future, a final decision will be taken on the project to develop the Amulsar deposit. This confidence was expressed on August 29 at the press conference in Yerevan by the Minister of Energy Infrastructures and Natural Resources of the Republic of Armenia Artur Grigoryan.

According to him, the Lydian Armenia company has made serious investments in the Amulsar deposit and intends to continue its investment activity.

Nevertheless, according to the Minister, one can not ignore the existing environmental risks. "It is very important not to interfere with attracting investments, be careful, while not forgetting the existing problems in the sphere of the environment," the minister stressed, adding that, according to him, it is a question of 1- 2 problems. "I hope in the near future they will be resolved," the head of the department stressed. It should also be noted that earlier employees of the Lydian Armenia Company appealed to human rights defender Arman Tatoyan.

The letter to the Ombudsman reads in part: "We are informing you that from June 22 to this day, as a result of the illegal activities of a group of people, all roads leading to Amulsar are closed, as a result of which we can not fulfill our contractual obligations, we have been idle, some workers have been terminated working contracts due to the inability to exploit the deposit.In addition, for a long time we have not received a salary, some employees receive 2/3 of the salary.This problem has repeatedly been raised as from our article as well as by the company's management.The company sent an application to the police on June 26 to initiate a criminal investigation, but to date no action was taken by the police.

On August 27, almost all employees of the company, including women and foreigners who were near the road to Amulsar, they were beaten by a group of people who blocked the roads to the deposit, as a result of which several people with moderate and mild injuries were taken to the hospital. All this was carried out in the presence of representatives of the police of Jermuk, Vaik and Yeghegnadzor, who showed inaction.  Taking into account the fact that there is a gross violation of human rights, we ask you to accept this complaint for consideration and to make a decision regarding violation of our rights to property and work, and the state body that committed the violation - to promptly eliminate this violation. "On the eve of the company's sustainable development team, Lydian Armenia "issued a statement in which it is bewildered by the requirement of the inspection body for nature protection and subsoil to stop all work on the development of the Amulsar deposit in the midst of As it turned out, purple carnations and butterflies Apollo, listed in the Red Book, served as the basis for the claim.

Let us recall that Lydian Armenia is a subsidiary of the British Lydian International, whose shareholders are also large international institutional investors from the United States, Great Britain and 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.