Illegal Mining of Gold Ore in the Territory of Aravik National Park

The Prosecutor General's Office of Armenia has launched an investigation into the information presented in a letter addressed to the Prosecutor General by Inga Zarafyan, the president of the EcoLur NGO. The letter raises concerns about the allocation of special purpose land from the Aravik National Park in the Syunik Province of Armenia for the exploitation of the Meghrasar gold deposit, as well as the destruction of forests under the guise of changing land categories.

The materials received have been forwarded to the Prosecutor's Office of Syunik Province, where the Meghri Police Department has been instructed to prepare materials to verify the circumstances outlined in the letter.

During the preparation of these materials, it was revealed that on December 24, 2014, the Armenian Ministry of Energy and Natural Resources granted a mining permit to a company for 7.5 years, along with an act for the operation of mining on an area of 133.6 hectares in the Meghrasar gold deposit.

However, data from the State Committee of Real Estate Cadastre indicated that 33,0002 hectares of the mentioned area coincides with territory allocated to the Aravik National Park and is included in specially protected areas.

In 2017, this company violated the rules of subsurface resource use by extracting minerals in that area without the consent of the respective landholders or land use contracts. Specifically, the company extracted 10,000 tons of ore, causing significant damage to the environment, the subsurface, and the minerals contained within.

The investigation has revealed that responsible officials of the Aravik National Park, due to opportunistic and personal interests or group interests, neglected their official duties by allowing the mentioned company to conduct subsurface use within the park, in violation of subsurface protection and usage rules. This has resulted in significant damage to the interests of the public and the state.

Considering the evidence of significant environmental harm caused by the company's violations of the subsurface usage and protection regulations or deviations from relevant projects, as well as signs of misconduct by the authorized officials of the Aravik National Park, a criminal case has been initiated under Article 291, Part 2 and Article 308, Part 1 of the Armenian Criminal Code.

The criminal case has been forwarded to the Investigative Department of the Investigative Committee of Armenia in Syunik Province for further investigation.