Lydian Sues Ministry of Environment

“Lydian International” has released a statement claiming that the rejection of the water usage permit application submitted by “Lydian Armenia” LLC for the exploitation of the Amulsar mine is illegal. The company is preparing to file a lawsuit against the Ministry of Environment.

The statement from Lydian reads: “On July 4, 2019, the Company applied to the Ministry for a water usage permit of 43.5 liters per second from the Darb River. On September 9, the Ministry delayed the permit and provided several comments, including the necessity of revising the required 43.5 l/s volume due to insufficient water quantity in Darb during the three months of the season.”

“On September 26, the Company responded in writing to the Ministry, revising its application for a 40 l/s water usage permit, as suggested by Ministry officials during discussions with the Company. On October 31, the Company received the rejection of its water usage permit application signed by the Minister of Environment on October 25.”

Lydian’s legal advisers interpret that under Armenian law, if the Ministry does not provide a decision within 50 working days, the application is considered accepted, and the Company has the right to utilize this. The legal advisers also clarified that even considering the Ministry’s delay in responding to the Company’s application, the Ministry has still exceeded the legally stipulated 50 days, and the Company may consider it has the water usage permit from Darb that corresponds to its application.

The Company intends to file with the Administrative Court to require the Ministry to provide a printed copy of the water usage permit to Lydian, a right the Company holds according to Armenian law.

Edward Sellers, the acting president and CEO of Lydian, commented on this occasion: “It is regrettable that Lydian must once again resort to the courts, hoping that the court will prevent illegal attempts to violate Lydian’s rights to implement the Amulsar project. Last month, the Administrative Court clarified that a former official of the Armenian Government was unlawfully trying to deprive the Company of its right to implement the Amulsar project. Now, it seems that the current Minister is also obstructing the Company with illegal actions from executing the Amulsar project.”

“On August 19, 2019, Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan publicly acknowledged that there is no legal basis on which the Armenian government could deny Lydian’s right to implement the Amulsar project and that it is in the interests of the country to allow the project to proceed. When will the Prime Minister fulfill his promise to uphold the rule of law?”