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The reserves of Amulsar mine were last established in December, 2013. In the article “Half a billion investments in gold mining” published in the weekly newspaper “Delovoy Express” (19.09.2014) Hayk Aloyan, the chief director of the mine, at the same time the investigator and geologist of the mine, said, “The established gold reserves of the mine are 2.5 million ounce, and those of refractory gold are 2.1 million ounce”. Being aware that this mine was investigated by the British union “Lidian International”, we think that the reserves were assessed by English once which constitutes 28,3495236 g. Recalculations showed that the gold reserves established by the Resources Agency of the RA are 70873,8 kg, and the amount of refractory gold is 59534 kg. According to H. Aloyan’s announcement the mineral reserves containing gold are 122,4 million tons, and the average gold contents is 0.77 g/t. Calculating by these data the amount of gold reserves is 94248 kg instead of 70783,8 kg. Mr. Aloyan probably was mistaken while assessing the average gold content and he said 0.77 g/t instead of 0,5783 g/t. However, Amulsar mine is ready for exploitation and according to H. Aloyan’s announcement the mine will be exploited as an opencast mine and 10 million tons of ore will be extracted and developed (Why so much? Why does the Armenian Government let that the wealth belonging to our people be plundered so unprecedentedly). We can also state that precious metals will be extracted from ores by the method of heap leaching, that is the ores extracted from the mine after crushing and grinding will be collected on the land in the village Gndevaz in the region of Vayk, the precious metals will be leached by means of strong poisonous materials called potassium or sodium cyanide and will be extracted from ores. 4863,6 kg gold will be extracted from 5790 kg gold in 10 million tons of ores developed annually, which is the 0,000049 percent of 10 million tons of ores. (9999995,136 kg, the remaining part after the gold extraction from 10 million tons of ores will dump on the land of the village Gndevaz, on the western slope of Amulsar. This process will continue for 10 years. It was found out by the analyses of 40 samples not characteristic to mineral body and not belonging to Amulsar mineral body (probably extracted from a territory belonging to waste rocks) that besides precious metals there are also 26 heavy metals and elements with toxic properties in the ores. They are aluminum, arsenic, beryllium, bismuth, cadmium, cobalt, chrome, copper, iron, gallium, molybdenum, nickel, lead, antimony, scandium, strontium, thorium, titan, thallium, uranium, vanadium, tungsten, zinc, mercury, selenium, tellurium and so on. In the territory of the mentioned 40 not characteristic samples the average gold content is 0,0048 g/t which is more than 120 times lower than that in balance reserves which is 0,5783 g/t, therefore we have the right to think that the contents of the mentioned elements are lower to the same extent than their true contents. But even if we think that those contents are true or near to reality their approximate quantities according to our calculations are: 612 tons of thallium, 2708,7 tons of arsenic, 162,8 tons of beryllium, 235,6 tons of bismuth, 178,7 tons of cadmium, 2200,7 tons of cobalt, 1358,6 tons of chrome, 7350120 tons of copper, 1391,7 tons of gallium, 1567,9 tons of nickel, 3678,1 tons of lead, 1960,8 tons of antimony, 1687,9 tons of scandium, 55529,2 tons of strontium, 437580 tons of titanium, 918 tons of uranium, 19565,6 tons of vanadium, 66830,4 tons of zinc, 329 tons of mercury, 673 tons of tungsten, the total number is 7961664,8 tons (that total number can exceed 8 million tons together with 16 % or 11340 kg of not refractory gold and elements not mentioned here). And all this 122,3999 million tons in the crushed and grinded rocks will dump on the slopes of Amulsar. 342,72 million tons of crushed waste rocks will also dump on the slopes of Amulsar among which there can also be more than 20 million tons of the heavy and toxic elements mentioned above. The namesake uranium mine is situated 5 km from the apical part of Amulsar gold mine, which is at the same time considered the northwest continuation of the gold section. The rates of uranium mineralization in the direction of diffusion and decadence are not determined and it’s not excluded to intermingle with uranium mineralization in the northwest part while exploiting gold section. It’s evidenced by 1.existence of uranium mineralization in the territory of gold mineralization, 2.existence of radon gas in the territory of the village Gndevaz. Certain threat can be caused to Lake Sevan because of the exploitation of Amulsar mine. The fine powders of the mentioned heavy metals and toxic elements dumping in the waters of Kechut reservoir of Arpa river flowing to Lake Sevan can reach to Lake Sevan through tunel Kechut. Now it’s difficult to assess what will happen to Sevan but it’s obvious to everyone that nothing good is expected. The extraction of precious metals from ores will be done in the method of heap leaching which includes the following activities. In the territories of the village Gndevaz ores will be crushed and grinded, the crushed and grinded ores will be compiled in a certain part of the west slopes of Amulsar and potassium and sodium cyanide will damp on them which leaching precious metals will bring them out and gather in containers neutral to the impact of cyanides. The lands of the village Gndevaz will be contaminated with the remains of the heavy metals, toxic elements and cyanides because of these activities. The village Gndevaz has to be evacuated (the people’s lives living in that village, especially women’s and children’s lives are endangered because of the influence of toxic elements and heavy metals available in extraction wastes and waste rocks, as well as the influence of heavy metals and powders of toxic elements reaching to Gndevaz from the opencast mine area on the top of Amulsar). The remains of cyanides won’t be less dangerous which can spread and poison the environment. If the evacuation of the population of the village Gndevaz will be done quickly within several years the population of town Jermuk won’t be evacuated so quickly. That population threatened by the impact of heavy metals and toxic elements, feeling that threat on themselves, can be evacuated part by part and within years. The people of Vayots Dzor who are fed on fruits and vegetables watered by river Arpa (natural precipitations leaching heavy metals and toxic elements available in the extracting wastes and waste rocks will bring them into the waters of river Arpa and from these waters they will penetrate into food plants and people’s organism. And what will happen to those people will be found out many years later). It is provoking to me that the Armenian Government authorized to extract annually 10 million tons of ores from its uterus in case of which the mine will be exploited within 10 years (such mines should be exploited for 200 years and more). Gold (perhaps even silver) will be exported (to England) leaving poison-heavy metals and toxic elements with uranium collected in tailing dump to our people. Hrachya Avagyan, Dr. in Geological and Mineral Sciences.
October 27, 2014 at 13:51