EcoLur
Teghut tailing dump safety issue is not an environmental one: Minister of Environment Erik Grigoryan said at the end-of-year press conference.
It should be mentioned that the International Council of Miners and Minerals (ICMM), whose mission is to ensure safety, fairness and stability in the mining industry, sent a letter on July 10, 2019 to RA Government members, which said that Teghut tailing dump in Armenia is in an extremely dangerous condition: it faces the imminent danger of collapse that could result in human casualties. The extremely dangerous situation is the result of a combination of inadequate design and construction, misuse and inadequate management."
In reply to this letter Minister Erik Grigoryan particularly said, “We have received the letter and forwarded it to the authorized body, the Ministry of Territorial Administration and Infrastructure, as the issue is being raised on the Teghut tailing dump and the wider non-environmental issues".
Reminder: Ministry of Nature Protection (currently renamed Ministry of Environment) approved Teghout Copper and Molybdenum Mine Project (2006) through its Environmental Expertise Center SNCO. Without this permission, the Teghout project could not be implemented.
Moreover, the positive environmental conclusion expired in 2014, and the mine was put into operation without a new expert opinion. Pursuant to Article 21 (2) (1) of RA Law on Environmental Impact Assessment and Expertise, the positive conclusion of Teghout Project should have been revoked on the basis of deviations from the implementation of the projected expertise documents and expert opinion requirements, which haven’t been performed.
January 08, 2020 at 18:01