Open or not ? The Amulsar gold mine is very likely to be operated, as Armenia’s Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan said this in an interview with 1in.am held on 23 February. The PM said that he had not changed his view because he was of the same opinion as a year ago.
"By the way, I would like to remind that I had considered the safety component very important in connection with Amulsar, saying that you see we are in a state of war, and when a war starts, the flow of tourists will not continue in our country. Then we may face currency problems. And in this situation, it is the specific mining industry that guarantees currency flows for the country; time has shown that.
But on the other hand, I can state that we were also able to properly manage the financial market, and as a result, in January we had the issue of eurobonds, which was the most successful issue in the history of the Republic of Armenia," said the premier.
And when asked whether that means it is more likely that the Amulsar gold mine will open anyway, Pashinyan answered: "There is such a possibility, and yes, we can say that it is high."
Reminder: US $ 450,000 AMD was paid from the state budget to Earth link & Advanced Resources Development (ELARD) for the document expert assessment of Amulsar gold mining project appointed within the frames of the criminal case.
As a result of its expert assessment, the company identified a number of omissions and problems in the EIA of Amulsar project. Experts from ELARD International Consulting Company said the Environmental Impact Assessment presented by Lydian is incomplete; a new assessment must be carried out for Amulsar Gold Project. during a video conference with RA Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan on August 29.
Then the Environment Ministry proposed Environmental Protection and Mining Inspection to carry out inspection: nevertheless, neither new expert assessment nor inspections have been carried out, whereas RA Investigative Committee hasn’t officially declared about the end or suspension of the criminal case on Amulsar.