Silva Adamyan, Public Environmental Alliance
The website of Nature Protection Ministry displays the project by “MegoGold” CJSC on the construction of a new tailing dump in Meliq Village, Aragatsotn Region…
MegoGold is the subsidiary of Global Gold Company, which has been developing Tukhmanuk gold mine since 2006 located in immediate proximity to Melik Village. The ore concentration is carried out in the same place, in a distance of several hundred meters from the village. The tailing dump is located nearby in the worst situation. Several breakdowns occurred there, it subsided thus damaging the water pipeline, which resulted in drinking and irrigation water to mix. And now the tailing dump is in emergency condition. The dust from the tailing dump is blown off to pastures and meadows thus intoxicating the harvest with heavy metals. As a result, crop productivity has decreased several times, but nobody has assessed the damages…The villagers have several times complained of the violations and damage, that the heavy machinery owned by MegoGold Company destroys their roads. Nevertheless, competent officials didn’t pay any attention to these complaints. They didn’t perform their obligations and didn’t hold either any environmental inspection or sanitary inspection.
We consider the construction of a new tailing dump to be impermissible in Meliq Village, unless:
1) the facts of violating the license issued for Toukhmanuk gold mine by MegoGold Company are explored,
2) the health state of Meliq villagers is checked, and the impact of opencast mine development on residents’ health is assessed,
We also consider it necessary to set up an interdepartmental working group with the participation of public representatives, which will give a substantiated assessment to socio-economic and environmental impact.
November 02, 2012 at 17:43