EcoLur
In December 2019, Lydian Armenia CJSC filed two lawsuits with RA Administrative Court against RA Environment Ministry. The company is demanding from the court to oblige the Ministry to adopt a favorable administrative act on issuing a water use permit (WP) for water intake from the Darb River. In another lawsuit, the company demanded that the Ministry issues a water permit compliant to the exemplasry sample of the WP for the water intake from the Darb River. The court accepted the two lawsuits for examination, and the court hearings are scheduled for June 9, 2020.
Reminder: In July 2019, "Lydian Armenia" company applied to Environment Ministry for a water use permit to carry out water intake of 40.0 l/s water from the Darb River for industrial purposed in the administrative district of Zaritap community, Vayots Dzor Region. The ministry had studied the company's application and then rejected it.
In addition, in November 2019, Lydian Armenia CJSC filed a lawsuit against RA Environment Ministry of demanding from court to oblige the ministry to adopt a favorable administrative act on granting a water use permit from the Arpa River in the administrative territory of Jermuk Community, Vayots Dzor Region, for the development of Amulsar gold-bearing quartzite mine and gold extraction process through heap leaching. The court accepted the lawsuit for examination, the hearing is scheduled for April 28, 2020.
Three months after filing a lawsuit, the company issued a statement in February 2020 saying: "Lydian International Limited announced that the Ministry of Environment of the Republic of Armenia has granted Lydian Armenia a permit to draw water from the Arpa River at a volume of 11l/s.
The Company had previously sought permission to draw water from the Arpa River on two prior occasions with higher level flow rates (in excess of 40l/s) to support long term operations, both of which were denied by the MOE. On December 23, 2019, the Company applied to the MOE to draw water at the lower flow rate, which is estimated to be enough to support completing construction of the Amulsar Project.
The Company had also previously applied to draw water from the Darb River at a volume sufficient to support longer term operations. That application was also rejected by the MOE in October 2019. The Company is disputing the MOE’s rejection in the Administrative Court of Armenia.”
April 06, 2020 at 17:15