EcoLur
Sotq village is a community where the richest reserves in Armenia are located. GeoProMining Company represented by its subsidiary GPM Gold Company rented 950 ha of the village administrative territory and possesses the concession for the exploitation of Sotq gold deposit. The company obtained the concession together with Ararat Gold Recovery Factory from Indian “Vedanta Recourses” Company in 2007.
According to Sotq Village Head Kolik Shahsuvaryan, the community budget receives only 180,000 AMD (approximately 500 USD) per year as a rent.
The village has 936 inhabitants and they are mainly dealing with agriculture. Only 8-10 people are employed in the deposit. “The deposit is local, but it is managed by foreigners, and naturally they invite other people to work,” said Sveta Mkheyan, Head of Studies of the village school.
The Sotq River where crucian and whitefish is found springs from the shelves of the deposit. “As soon as the work in the mine starts, there is no fish, as soon as it stops working, there is some fish,” said Shahsuvaryan. The villagers irrigate their fields and orchards with this polluted water. “We don’t use clean water for irrigation. If it were clean, not only Sevan would benefit, but also we did,” said the Head. By the way the agricultural products of Sotq, mainly potato, are sold in Yerevan.
The village, which is 2100 meters above sea level, has a natural shortage of oxygen. The situation deteriorates when wind blows in the dust from the deposit full of components of gold, silver, arsenic, selenium, copper and antimony. On its way dust accumulates on the fields and pastures, in the river, in the organisms of people causing diseases of upper respiratory tract and destroying the immune system.
It is known that heavy and toxic metals don’t decompose in the environment, but accumulate in the environment and organism. So far nobody has checked how much metal has been accumulated in the territory of the village and its inhabitants. Nobody has estimated how much damage the deposit caused to environment and particularly to Sotq Village. If no damage is estimated, no one will pay any compensation.
The villagers possess no information useful for them, for example, what is the level of soil, water and air pollution. Meanwhile pollution increases day by day, as the company mines gold by the open pit only and continuously expands the surface for mining. (See photo reportage).
In order to clarify the issue, whether GPM Gold Company bears responsibility for the socio-ecological situation emerged as a result of its activity, “EcoLur” sent GM Dimitri Kalandadze a letter requesting to answer the following questions:
• What kind of environmental measures has the company planned to take, and which ones have already been taken?
• How much money has GPM Gold Company paid to the state budget during its activity?
• Where the ores from Sotq gold deposit are emptied, and what will be done with them after the mine exploitation?
• How many tons of ore is mined from Sotq gold deposit, and whether it is planned to increase the mining volume?
• How many people are employed by GPM Gold Company at present and how much does a mean salary make up?
• Has the production been modernized in Sotq gold deposit and Ararat Gold Recovery Factory?
Dimitri Kalandadze refused to answer these questions and stated through Press-Attaché Ruzanna Grigoryan, that the company intends to support the ties with public only through press releases drawn up by the company.
September 18, 2009