Negative Impact on the Arpa River Should Not Have Existed According to 'Lydian Armenia', Yet This Claim Has Been Violated

The civil initiative 'Armenian Environmental Front' has made a post on its Facebook page, addressing the Minister of the Environment. The members of the initiative specifically request an investigation into the fact that 'Lydian Armenia' accepted responsibility for the floodwaters that flowed from the mining area to the Arpa River in May 2018 and the pollution of the river, which was recorded by the Environmental and Mining Inspectorate, but remains without consequence.

The full post is presented below:

'With the latest actions of the ministry regarding the exploitation project of the Amulsar gold-bearing quartzite deposits, it has become known to the public that the ministry has sent a letter to the government based on the report of ELLARD-TiARSI companies, requesting that the latter instruct the Environmental and Mining Inspectorate to carry out inspections again. However, according to the law on EIA and the procedure for nullifying the expert conclusion, the environmental impact assessment expert center also plays a role in this process.

In this appeal, we propose that the expert center analyze the presence of cases specified in point 4 of part 2 of Article 21 of the above-mentioned law or point 5 of part 2 of Article 21 of the law, and carry out all the functions mentioned in the respective points of the procedure without exception. We believe that there are numerous legal grounds in the report of ELLARD-TiARSI companies, your ministry's letter to the government, as well as in the international expert reports published in 2017-2018, which allow for the nullification of the positive expert conclusion given for this project on April 29, 2016.

We also ask to investigate the fact that 'Lydian Armenia' accepted responsibility for the floodwaters that flowed from the mining area to the Arpa River in May 2018, which was recorded by the Environmental and Mining Inspectorate, but remains without consequence.

Meanwhile, already in the construction phase, such phenomena are new ecological factors that emerged in 2018 in the absence of assessments of heavy rains and floods, creating the need to evaluate the project's impact on the Arpa River, particularly from the cyanide heap leaching pads. Lydian Armenia has always stated that there would be no negative impact on the Arpa River, but this claim and obligation have already been violated in the construction phase.

Attached to this letter are two reports presented by the Environmental and Mining Inspectorate to the EcoLur information NGO: 1. The Inspectorate's response to the NGO, 2. Lydian Armenia's letter to the Inspectorate.

Please keep us informed about the actions taken.