No Tailings Dam Was Damaged Due to the Disaster in Lori: Hetq

The spokesperson of the Ministry of Territorial Administration and Infrastructure, Sona Harutyunyan, assured Hetq in response to inquiries that the tailings dams in Lori province are stable after the disaster, the barriers are undamaged, and no issues have arisen.

"Regular monitoring is carried out, and there is no damage or danger regarding the barriers of the tailings dams," noted Sona Harutyunyan.

Lori is the second region after Syunik in Armenia with an abundance of tailings dams, with nine tailings dams currently recorded. We attempted to obtain clarifications regarding the current state of the tailings dams from the companies or administrative leaders associated with the operating mines and enrichment plants.

One of the operating mining sites is the Teghut mine, operated by Teghut LLC. The company’s General Director Vladimir Nalivayko responded to inquiries, stating that the recent disaster did not affect the body of the tailings dam. The dam remains unchanged.

However, the director informed that the extraction and processing of mineral resources has been halted. "The operational staff working on the tailings dam have taken comprehensive operational measures during the period of management aimed at preventing the flow of treated waters into the tailings dam. Currently, the dam is reinforced with additional rocky substrate. This work has been carried out over the past two years and continues at present," stated V. Nalivayko.

Additionally, the General Director announced that the 'Migrant' project company, in collaboration with a research organization from Stavropol, is conducting selection of tailings for further studies using the equipment of the 'Aparaj' company. Following this study, calculations will be made of the dynamics of tailings consolidation, recalibration of the stability level of the tailings dam, and potentially, specifying the volumes of works for raising the tailings dam with rocky substrate.