YEREVAN—The Armenian government has yet again postponed any ruling on the safety of the controversial Amulsar gold mine. At a cabinet meeting on Wednesday, Minister of Environmental Protection Eric Grigoryan briefed the Prime Minister on his Ministry’s ongoing review of the latest environmental impact assessment (EIA
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Hi, Raffi…it seems that the Armenian Government has areal problem to differentiate
between facts & an honest Canadian company who is giving the country a wonderful opportunity to earn a lot of money, tons of jobs and honest evaluations about the environmental problems they allowed in their past mining history.
Do they not trust an honest Canadian company who will create many jobs & tons of income for the country over the next 10-15 years.
Yeah I heard of an honest Canadian company once, it was called AS_IF INC :)
Have you heard of SNC Lavalin?
Speak with the Aboriginals for Canada living in the North who’s right are being violated by the oil companies.
Honest Canadian company, hahahaa… you made my day.
It pays to have politeness as ones facade, you can get away with anything, apparently.
Excuse me, but who are you to qualify the Canadian company as HONEST. I am not saying they are, and I am not saying they are not. It’s just beyond my understanding, as to what your credentials are to, so positively assert the honesty of that company.
As to the potential benefits to Armenia, I was stunned to read that Armenia would get the equivalent of ONLY $500 millions tax revenue over the LIFETIME of the project, while I guess the company would make billions and billions.
That $500 million would be a fraction of what it would actually cost Armenia to clean up the mess left out at the end of the project, on the mining site, besides the collateral potential environmental damages to the surrounding, as well as the lost revenues from all kinds of missed other business activities, in the domains of tourism, agriculture, and possibly more.
You show me one example of clean open mining in the world, that hasn’t left a messy and expensive clean up and environmental or health problems, and I will be the first and best promoter of this project.
Respectfully,
Henry
Are you an investor in that honest offshore company?
Roger Baker,
here is a link for you telling about how Canadian mining company Barrick Gold does business. And, what’s up with everyone from abroad taking Armenians for naive people, who can be easily manipulated and intimidated, talking to us as if we are children? Will you stop that, please?
https://www.nationalobserver.com/2016/06/24/news/canadian-mining-giant-barrick-gold-fired-whistleblower-then-they-spilled-cyanide?fbclid=IwAR3XPkMKCwQ-A8DlozmYU_pySL8ka–MA9yEpR0N-i2MbFo18aH1k3wIo_8
Unfortunately what appears to be acceptable for the Canadian government, the EBRD, the World Bank, Wardell Armstrong and Golder and Associates, apparently is not enough for ELARD.
For the record I’ve been in the mining industry for 20 years and have never heard of ELARD.
I’ve never heard of this company either and am also quite familiar with mining and consultants. Their website touts themselves as world-class consultants, but is peppered with typos and is written in poor English…some real world-class. It begs the question, why did they select this consultant no one’s heard of. The prime minister said it was recommended by the National Resource Governance Institute, which is a…Soros/Open Society organization, who seems to be the unofficial consultant for all things for the government.
Hrach, and have you heard of Lydian? I mean, before it decided to make this investment. This is a company with absolutely zero experience in mining and, I believe, anything at all. It was formed with the purpose of doing mining in Armenia and Georgia. They have been kicked out of Gerogia, I heard.
So with your 20-year experience in the area, you would be fine with this inexperienced offshore company, with lots of holes in their sloppy paperwork about the risks involved etc., who made the deal with a corrupt government, to come and mine in Armenia, contaminate our waters and all the rest? Your name tells me you are Armenian. Wow. You really care about the survival of your own people on the last remaining piece of our homeland. No words. Just get lost. Nobody cares for your poisonous investments.
Hello,
I have also not heard about ELARD and we have implemented many project under canadian companies with 0 harm. They are very good at mining in all aspects.
No problem, then go mine in your country and don’t tell us what to do. The people of Armenia don’t want it, end of story.
To Keke Amed, and all the proponents of the project,
maybe we do not live in the same Canada, or we do not follow the same news about the canadian mines and companies.
How come you haven’t heard about corrupt companies, fake studies, messy and failed operations in Latin America, savage exploitations elsewhere in the world.
Certainly not all Canadian mining companies are bad. But I wonder how you have not heard about the bad ones.
What i want to mean is that, the fact that the company is Canadian does not necessarily preclude negative results or impacts.
Unfortunately the clean up, and the environmental restitution costs are never taken into account in the exploitation of a mine, and naturally in the price of the end products. otherwise mining would be too prohibitive.
so we think short term, and when comes time to repair the damage, the suspects, and responsible always vanish or escape their responsibilities.
Honest Canadian company? Why don’t you publish the list of shareholders that stand to make millions from this project. They wouldn’t give a shit about poisoning the water basin.
Bunch of trolls trying to sway public opinion, eh?
This has become a very complex problem which will eventually become a legal problem.
I’ll let legal experts/pundits comment.
– No further study/analysis will be 100% conclusive.
– No agreement will be reached between the sides.
– No Mining project anywhere in the world is 100% risk free.
– It is a question of risk assessment versus benefits (if really meaningful).
– No iron clad guarantee can be made about risks caused by mother nature.
– Environmentalists demand 0 % risk, which in the real world is impractical.
-Lydian is a high risk company.
a) It is in a precarious financial condition.
b) It has negative cash flow , and it’s cash on hand as of 6.30.2019 as per their financial statements is a mere $ 5.8 million. They will need to raise cash soon which will be very difficult.
c) It’s equity is negative $ 23.7 million.
These are consequences of the blockade and work stoppage. They did not have the capacity/cushion to withstand such a prolonged period of stoppage.
It is desperate; it’s stock LDY ( on the Toronto exchange) is practically worthless.
Vart Adjemian
Being an Armenian, born and raised in Canada and now living in the USA. There is nothing more honest and trustworthy than Mother Armenia who for thousands of years has looked over the lands of Armenia. Destroying the lands is not an option for any Armenian. Lake Sevan saved the Armenian people during the blockade by to mention that the water that flows in the ground of Armenia feeds an entire nation what is arguably the best tasting fruits and vegetables on earth. Today’s greed should not be sold at the cost of the future of Armenia.