Armenian public is concerned about uranium reserves in Amulsar field

ArmInfo. "Jermuk should remain a resort city," said a resident of Jermuk, on whose door the Prime Minister of Armenia Nikol Pashinyan knocked and asked her opinion on  the exploitation of the Amulsar field.

To the prime minister's clarifying question, will she change her mind  if the absolute security of the program is proved, a resident of  Jermuk said: "I don't think that a mine can be operated in the  immediate vicinity of the resort town. This is the opinion of the  entire population of the city." When the prime minister left the  building, the city residents met him, chanting: "Amulsar - without a  mine."

Note that the Amulsar gold mine is located 10 kilometers in a  straight line from Jermuk. After Pashinyan gave a preliminary "green  light" to the program during a Facebook live broadcast on August 19,  stating that according to the international expertise, Amulsar does  not harm Sevan and the environment, residents of the surrounding  areas and Jermuk assured that they will take part in unlimited  protests, but they will not allow to continue the operation of the  mine.

It should be noted that earlier the Prime Minister during a live  broadcast on his Facebook page, the head of government said that the  Government of Armenia will conduct constant monitoring during the  development of the field. He once again assured that if facts were  suddenly revealed that would cast doubt on the feasibility of  exploiting the field, then the authorities would return to the  problem, as they were not constrained by anything.

On August 14, the Investigative Committee of Armenia presented the  expert opinion on the Amulsar project of the consulting company  Earthlink & Advanced Resources Development (ELARD). Based on the  conclusion of the examination, the SC of Armenia stated that there is  no direct connection between the underground waters located on the  territory of the Amulsar project and the thermal hot springs of  Jermuk.  There is also no connection with the waters of the Sevan  basin.

Moreover, as indicated in the UK, during an earthquake, a certain  concentration of acid drainage can penetrate into the basin of Lake  Sevan through the Spandaryan and Ketchut reservoirs. However, the  combination of this concentration will be insignificant on the scale  of Lake Sevan. The third important conclusion, on the Arpa, Vorotan  and Darb rivers, can be mitigated if LydianArmenia takes 16  environmental mitigation measures proposed by experts. As the head of  the UK Hayk Grigoryan pointed out, LydianArmenia representatives have  already expressed their readiness to implement 15 of the proposed 16  events: 10 events they are already holding, 5 will be ready to  conduct in the near future.  In addition to the water basin, the  public is also concerned about the possible presence of uranium  reserves in the deposit. So, in his work "Uranium bearing of  geological formations in Armenia", the famous scientist, Doctor of  Geological Sciences Petros Gevorkovich Aloyan noted that the Amulsar  manifestation of uranium is located 4 km south-east of the village of  Ketchut and 5 km north-west of the top of the mountain of the same  name .

Approximately 76 tons of uranium were calculated for five sections of  the Amulsar manifestation, and taking into account uranium in the  thorium section, its total reserves can be estimated at 100 tons.   Moreover, according to the research of another scientist, Professor  G.S. Avagyan, according to 40 samples of Amulsar ore, there are 195  tons of uranium and thorium there. Meanwhile, the development of  uranium deposits requires special permission from the government,  which Lidian does not have.  According to the company, the deposit  contains about 73733 kg of gold with an average grade of 0.78 g per  ton, as well as 294.367 tons silver with an average content of 9.29 g  per ton. At the same time, about uranium - not a word.

Lydian Armenia is a subsidiary of British Lydian International The  total cost of the Amulsar project is $ 370 million. The field's life  will be 10 years and 4 months, with an average of 200 thousand ounces  of gold being mined annually. Amulsar field is the second largest  reserves in Armenia.