Government Has Not Yet Received Its Stake in Amulsar, Deputy Minister Details

The Government of Armenia has not yet received its stake in the Amulsar mining site. This was stated by Deputy Minister of Territorial Administration and Infrastructure Hovhannes Harutyunyan during a press conference with journalists today.

“The formal transfer has not yet occurred. Work is continuing within the framework of the signed memorandum because obtaining shares from the government is not an end in itself. It implies all kinds of accountability tools that the government will be equipped with. Being a shareholder, in turn, brings responsibilities, for example, regarding the safety of infrastructure. We need to understand whether all possible risks have been mitigated. Only then will the financing processes open up, and only then will the transfer of shares take place,” the deputy minister stated.

It is noteworthy that in February of this year, the Government of Armenia, Lydian Armenia, and the Eurasian Development Bank signed a trilateral memorandum of understanding, under which the parties committed to invest approximately $150 million in the Amulsar gold mine development project. There was also a verbal agreement on an additional $100 million investment.

According to the memorandum, the Government of Armenia is supposed to receive a 12.5 percent stake in the company. On December 14, Denis Ilyin, Senior Executive Director of the Eurasian Development Bank, announced that the EDB had not yet made a final decision on the operation of the Amulsar mine, stating that additional expert assessments were necessary, as well as the development of an environmental support plan for the project, to protect the national park and the area's nature, and to ensure economic benefits.

Harutyunyan noted that work in Amulsar is currently ongoing in that direction. “A team is working at the mine, which has been tasked not just with conducting assessments but with directing services related to the commencement of mine operation. Because such a large-scale work launch requires extensive preparatory tasks, starting from selecting the organizations that will work there. Construction work has been halted there for several years, and it needs to be determined if work should continue from the point where it was stopped or if existing engineering infrastructures should be dismantled and new ones constructed. Evaluating them and reaching conclusions about them is a mandatory condition for both the financing organizations and the government,” he explained.

The deputy minister assured that the deadline for this preparatory work is set for December. Actual operational work is expected to commence in 2024.