Environmental News

Mining Disaster? Environmentalists say planned ACP exploitation will ruin Lori forests and villages
By Arpi Harutyunyan

ArmeniaNow.com
March 16, 2007

According to the working plan of the Armenian Copper Program (ACP) 357.16 hectares of forest will be logged for the purpose of the exploitation of the copper and molybdenum mine in the village of Teghut in Lori region. The volume of timber makes 57,700 cubic meters.

Hakob Sanasaryan, the chairman of the Union of Greens says according to his estimates 170,833 trees will be logged, including unique walnut, apple and pear trees.

Despite the fuss kicked up by the environmentalists, last year the RA Ministry of Environmental Protection approved the working project on the exploitation of the Teghut mine.

"The Ministry of Environmental Protection has positively assessed the working project developed by the Mining and Smelting Institute and approved by the ACP Company, although it lacks both the estimates of the cost of industrial recompence or any compensation for the damage done in Shnogh and Teghut villages. The information regarding the damage to be caused to the forest is not full either. It also lacks indication of an alternative method for mining,” says Srbuhi Harutyunyan, chairwoman of the Social-Environmental Association.

The representatives of the 26 organizations included in the SOS Teghut coalition say the approval of the project infringes 77 provisions of RA legislation and international treaties.

“The project violates the RA Constitution, the Laws on Natural Zones under Special Protection, on Flora, on Fauna, on Examination of Influence on Environment, on Urban-Planning, on Protection of Atmospheric/Ambient Air, as well the Land, Water and Forest Codes,” the coalition statement says.

Gagik Arzumanyan, executive director of the Armenian Copper Program Company says the damage to be caused to the forest in the 25 years of the mine exploitation will make 2 billion drams ($5.5 million).

“The territory supposed for the mining is a wonder of natural. The forest there is the best preserved and the most diverse in our republic. Many of the plants and animals found in the area are included in both the Armenian and the international Red Books,” says Sanasaryan.

The environmentalists say the terrain is very complex; it is divided by four gorges and the small rivers running through the gorges have constant flow. About 75 percent of the mining area is forest. The forest includes oak trees, horse fennels, beeches, ashes, pine-trees, etc.

“All these will be exterminated if the mine is exploited. It does not matter how many hectares are cut. This territory has four gorges and five mountain summits: consequently, because of a high declivity, cutting of even a hectare is enough to cause erosion of soil. Besides, the logging will dry up the drinking and irrigation water sources,” Harutyunyan predicts.

According to RA Minister of Environmental Protection Vardan Aivazyan and ACP’s Arzumanyan, the expected use will supersede the forecasted damage.

“Of course the natural landscape will be distorted, but is it a reason not to fulfill the program? Any kind of economic activity supposes certain damages; there are roads and railroads built at the moment and they also harm nature: shall we say we don’t need them?” Arzumanyan says.

And Minister Aivazyan suggests “excluding all the rest of the logging and instead log Teghut”.

“People have spent serious financial means to identify 150,000 tons of molybdenum and 1.6 million tons of copper available in the area, besides other metals,” says Aivazyan and adds that 100,000 square meters of wood is annually cut in Armenia and the World Bank data says 600 – 700,000 square meters of wood is cut illegally.

In this context the Minister of Environmental Protection believes the planned loggings by the ACP are insignificant, especially as the company plans to plant forest equal to the logged one. The 670 hectare mine is in close neighborhood of Shnogh and Teghut villages – combined population about 5,000 – and the greater part of their lands is also included in the territory for mining.

“They say the forest in the neighborhood will be restored in 25 years. It’s impossible simply because the trees in Teghut are centuries old. And then, everyone knows, a seedling hardly becomes a tree in 25 years, and certainly it can’t become a thick trunk tree to fulfill all the functions of providing biodiversity,” explains “honorary” villager of Shnogh and archeologist Varsham Avetyan.

The available resources of the mine were found in 1991. The tender for the mine exploitation of 2001 was won by the Armenian Copper Program Company.

The average amount of copper and molybdenum in 453.8 million tons of mine stone is 0.355 and 0.021 percents respectively. The exploitation of the mine will be done by an open-cast mining method, meaning through use of explosives.

Harutyunyan raises a question on why exploitation was not launched in the 1970s, when the mine was discovered.

Ruben Papoyan, Teghut mine regional director of ACP, says “those were surveys and the available resources were discovered in 1991, when there was no Soviet Union any more.”

However, chairwoman of Ecolur NGO Inga Zarafyan says “it is a well known fact the authorities of the Soviet Armenia, particularly the First Secretary of the Central Committee, had strictly prohibited mining in the area based on the necessity to preserve the unique nature of the Teghut forest.”

The environmentalists insist the works could at least be done by using a close-cast (drilling) method to minimize the damage to the environment.

Gagik Babayan, the head of the geodesic group of the Teghut mine says the mine does not have a “vein” and therefore extraction can’t be done in a closed underground regime.

“I think it is possible, simply the profit will not be that big and quick; that is the reason they don’t even discuss the variant,” argues villager Avetyan.

Besides the loss of the forest funds, the environmentalists are also concerned with the “tailings” (mining residue) and the influence they will have after the exploitation begins.

According to the plan presented by the company the production of the plant in the first stage (8 years) of exploitation will make 7 million tons of ore annually. The Union of the Greens data says in case of the mentioned volume of production the tailings will make 522 million cubic meters in 25 years. Consequently the penetration of copper, molybdenum, sulfur, arsenic, lead, zinc and other toxic metals into the soil and air basin will increase and will severely damage both the environment and people’s health.

According to the project the construction of a tailings dump is planned in the valley of the Pakasajur River. Its infrastructure will occupy a territory of 170-180 hectares.

Sanasaryan is also concerned about the location of the tailings dump, saying it is planned for an area that could jeopardize the integrity of the soil, leading to landslide.

The representatives of the ACP Company try to alleviate the inflexible position of the experts and appeal to state interests and the creation of the jobs during the mine exploitation for counter-argumentation.

“Why single out the organization, when there is a state interest? I think we need to evaluate the programs to define which of the programs is most advantageous to our state. And, naturally, mining industry has wider demand and is more profitable,” says Papoyan. “We have to have a developed country to be able to exist by means of our economy. Besides, the population of Teghut and Shnogh wait for jobs and the mine exploitation will create 1,450 workplaces.”

The head of Teghut village administration Harutyun Meliksetyan and the deputy head of Shnogh Koryun Shahinyan also support the exploitation of the mine, while not indifferent to the environmental problems.

“We are all concerned with the preservation of the forest, but more than the half of the population of these two villages are jobless. We think the exploitation of the mine will at least provide them with jobs,” say the village leaders.

Nazeli Vardanyan, chairwoman of the Armenian Forests NGO, suggests the village heads look further into the future before trading nature for jobs.

“The heads of the village administrations welcome the project of mine exploitation today, but we can see ourselves the growth in the environmental problems causes increases in the defective birth rate. No one is guaranteed against the tragedy. There are more civilized and safe ways of creating jobs. Why not create a preserves factory or light industry? Who says we must exploit all our mines? Today the heads of Teghut and Shnogh administrations care for their positions, but tomorrow they will be the first to lose their job, because there will be neither Teghut nor Shnogh.”

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