Public organizations sent a letter to Prime Minister of country with  appeal to stop development of Amulsar deposit

ArmInfo.A number of Armenian public organizations addressed an open letter to the country's Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan with an appeal to halt the development of 

the Amulsar deposit.

In the opinion of the authors of the letter, the development of the 

deposit may become a new ecological catastrophe for Armenia. "We are 

aware that until now the state policy in the mining industry has been 

based on such development scenarios that many countries of the world 

have refused, since in the short term it is a very risky enterprise, 

economically unreasonable and financially unstable," the letter says. 

It also indicates the danger of such factors as violation of human 

security, generally accepted norms and infringement of the rights of 

future generations. The situation, which can be described as the 

"Curse of Resources", is presented as a policy of attracting 

investments. Meanwhile, investments in a broader sense also include 

spending on fulfilling commitments, such as equitable distribution of 

social wealth among the local population, assessing the interests of 

workers and villagers, and, most importantly, addressing the problem 

of nature conservation. The letter was signed by representatives of 

several public organizations - the Environmental Front of Armenia, 

NGO "Forests of Armenia", Transparency International and 

"Environmental Law", EcoLur, Public Ecological Union, etc.

To note, the sphere of mining industry occupies a special place in 

the economy of Armenia. At least half of Armenia's exported deposits 

fall to the share of ore concentrates and metals, which occupy the 

most important place in the list of products imported from the 

country. At the state balance of mineral resources, more than 670 

deposits of solid minerals with confirmed reserves, including 30 

metal deposits, are currently registered. About 400 of these deposits 

are exploited, including 22 metal ones. There are 7 copper-molybdenum 

deposits, 4 copper, 14 gold and gold-polymetallic deposits, 2 iron 

ore and 1 aluminum ore on metallic minerals.

On May 25, RA Minister of Energy Infrastructures and Natural 

Resources Arthur Grigoryan told journalists that work will soon begin 

on the implementation of the decree of the Prime Minister of the 

Republic of Armenia, Nikol Pashinyan, on verification at the 

exploited mines and deposits in Armenia. According to him, the 

department has already received the order of the Prime Minister, work 

on its implementation has begun. "All research data will be published 

in a short time," the minister stressed. Earlier, RA Prime Minister 

instructed the authorities to start inspections at the exploited 

mines and mineral deposits in Armenia. He noted that recently there 

have been a lot of signals about the compliance of these mines with 

the legislation and environmental standards of the country.

"We will be consistent in this matter, recently, both in the whole 

world and in Armenia environmental problems are being actively 

discussed, in this issue, as well as in a number of others, a 

balanced approach is needed," noted Nikol Pashinyan, Such an approach 

will not manage to bring the matter to negative consequences, 

including those related to investments.