Mining at Amulsar violates public interest and rightsThe mine at Amulsar is a bomb planted under Armenia’s water resources, including drinking water. It can pollute not only the underground mineral waters of Jermuk, but also Lake Sevan, the largest resource of freshwater in the region,It is a strategic danger for the Republic of Armenia. Mount Amulsar, almost 3,000 meters above sea level, is located near the resort town of Jermuk and the major rivers Arpa and Vorotan. For the past several years, the mountain has been under the spotlight of environmental activists. It has relatively low grade of gold at 0.78 grams per ton of ore. In comparison, the gold mine at Sotk, some 20 kilometers off the southeastern coast of Lake Sevan, contains 120 tons of gold at 5-7 grams of gold per ton of ore. An offshore company called Lydian Armenia was given final permit by the corrupted officials to start construction at Amulsar in 2014.
The project will cause severe damage to Armenia’s nature, especially its waters, including Lake Sevan. The most consequential problem with mining at Amulsar is the probability of an acid mine drainage into the Arpa River and the Kechut reservoir, built on the Arpa. It is connected to Lake Sevan with a 49 kilometer long tunnel built in the Soviet period to halt the unsustainable outflow of the lake’s waters exploited at a heavy pace for hydropower and irrigation.
The second issue is the use of cyanide in extracting the gold from the ore in a process called heap leaching (a mineral processing and extraction technology). Besides the legality of use of cyanide, environmentalists point to its close proximity to residential buildings in the village of Gndevaz. The heap leaching, now under construction, is only a kilometer away. Cyanide may even travel to as far as 30 kilometers from the site with the dust causing serious health problems for humans, but also damaging plants and animals. Lydian representatives either deny or minimize these concerns.