Politician: Amulsar mine needs a new environmental impact assessment

ArmInfo.Amulsar mine needs a new environmental impact assessment. Head of the parliamentary faction of the Bright Armenia Party Edmon Marukyan  expressed a  similar opinion to ArmInfo.

"From the very beginning, we declared the impossibility of convincing  our citizens of the necessity and harmlessness of developing Amulsar  on the basis of dubious conclusions of a dubious examination of an  ELARD organization selected in a very dubious manner. We consider  this conclusion unreliable. A new assessment is needed, since the  company does not trust the results of the assessment carried out  under the previous authorities, "he stressed. During a Skype  conference with the Prime Minister of Armenia Nikol Pashinyan on  August 19, member of the expert group of Earth link & Advanced  Resources Development (ELARD) company, hydro geologist Dr. Nidal  Rabahi said that it is impossible to assess the environmental impact  of the Amulsar mine. The reason, he said, is the inferiority of the  data provided by Lydian Armenia. 

Noting that the cancellation of Amulsar's exploitation would  jeopardize Armenia's investment attractiveness, the politician  considers it necessary to give a clear definition of Lydian Armenia's  opportunities and chances to appeal to international arbitration in  this case. According to him, the investment image of the country can  be protected through the argument that all changes in Armenia are  derived from revolution

According to Marukyan, his meetings and meetings of his party members  with the residents of Jermuk speak about the complete unwillingness  of the Vayots Dzor to make any concessions on the issue of developing  Amulsar. Based on the conclusions and assessments of many scientists,  the politician considers it obvious that the mine will have unlimited  negative impact on the natural conditions of Jermuk, Vayots Dzor and  the whole republic.

Amulsar mine is located 10 kilometers from the resort of Jermuk.  According to the explored reserves of gold, the deposit takes the  second place in Armenia. Geological exploration of the area, which  began in 2007, ended in 2015 with an environmental and social  assessment of mining at the mine. Civil activists and  environmentalists opposed the mine's operation, organizing mass  protests in this regard, forcing Lydian Armenia to conduct additional  research.