Last Monday, it was announced that during the geological/investigative superintendence of the state ecology department of the Ministry of Environmental Protection of Armenia, it was discovered that the “Ararat Gold Extraction Company” (AGEC) had hidden 1.056 kilograms of gold, 3 tons of silver and 1.44 tons of telur in the Sodk and Meghradzor mining fields. It is worth mentioning that this is the second time that the AGEC is hiding the gold (at least as far as we know). Before that, the department had discovered 1.5 tons of hidden gold. AGEC had appealed to the court for the department’s charge and the court trail is still in progress. The Ministry of Environmental Protection officials said that the AGEC filed the second complaint for this charge. But during an interview with “168 Hours”, Indian president of the AGEC B. K. Sharma denied that the AGEC had ever hidden gold. “168 Hours” talked about this and other issues concerning the “Ararat Gold Factory” with Mr. Sharma who is certain that they are doing everything they can to work fairly and not to cause damage to the environment, however Armenian ecologists create obstacles and press charges on them for no reason. It is also worth mentioning that last year, the AGEC administration presented a project to the Government of Armenia aimed towards the construction of a reprocessing factory on the basin of Lake Sevan near the Sodk mining field. Did the government approve that project because of the scandal of the NGOs or because it wanted to? The fact of the matter is that the cyan used for reprocessing the gold is very dangerous to the environment and threatened to eliminate the ecosystem of Lake Sevan.
– You refused to construct a factory on the Lake Sevan basin and now you want to build one in Ararat?
– Although we tried to maintain the necessary standards for preservation of the environment and security in the factory construction plan, however the government disapproved our proposal based on the law of the Republic of Armenia on Lake Sevan. So, we decided to remodel the current reprocessing unit of Ararat, the cyan intoxication system and add an extra auto-cleaning machine. We’ll review the resources in the mountainous territories that have a 20-kilometer beam and are near the mining fields for investigation in order to amplify our resource base. After the review and investigation and the amplification of the resource base, we will try to find another place to construct our factory far from the Lake Sevan basin so that we can move on to the second phase of investment and investigation.
– Why do you want to build a new factory when you are already updating the Ararat factory?
– Because we need a lot of money to transfer the ores to Ararat. Until then, the fastest way for us to have more opportunities is to remodel and add more systems in Ararat. We keep asking the Government of Armenia to improve the railway substructures and rationalize the exchange fee. We hope that the Government of Armenia will be kind enough to fulfill our request.
– How much money is needed to transfer the gold and in general, how much is the price for gold after reprocessing?
– The price for the transfer of our extracted gold equivalent to one uncial (31.1 grams) ranges from 55-60 dollars and after reprocessing the price goes up to 500 dollars.
– Currently, how many ores are reprocessed at the Ararat factory?
– Currently, the factory reprocesses 35,000-40,000 tons of ores in the case of effective work. We have never stopped the reprocessing works of the old factory, however for the time being we can only reprocess non-refractory ores and gold particles. However, the divided ores in Sodk are refractory and can’t be reprocessed in the cyan intoxication system. We are remodeling and perfecting the current factory in order to improve our reprocessing factory; we’re also going to bring in a new auto-cleaning machine for reprocessing the refractory ores and that machine has been used in the mining industry worldwide.
– By how much are you going to increase the volumes of reprocessing after updating the old factory?
– We are going to reprocess 1 million tons of ores a year, in other words, twice more than we reprocess now. Besides that, the new technologies will give us the chance to extract ores in depth. We’re not only going to update the factory, but also the machines functioning in the ore. We’re going to bring better equipment.
– Is it possible to see cut-backs in the number of workers after the updating? After all, the new technical equipment substitutes for the work force.
– No, there won’t be any cut-backs.
– Will the cyan have a dangerous influence on the environment as a result of updating? The ecologists working with the Ararat factory keep saying that the exhaustion rate of the cyan is higher than the norm.
– There is no such thing. First of all, I would like to say that the AGEC is not doing anything illegal; we follow up on international norms. We’re not causing damage to any water resource of the environment. Our reprocessing is based on the closed circulation of water without the release. The cyan dries up under the sun after a couple of days and is no longer harmful. We’re ready to follow the Armenian legislation, rules and regulation, including the rules for environment protection. The Ministry of Environmental Protection has made some proposals for the future improvements and we have gone along with that.
– This means that the Armenian ecologists and NGOs are causing a scandal, claiming that the cyan has an influence on the environment for no reason.
– I can’t say.
– According to our sources, the “Avshar” factory used to export alcohol spirit to Israel a couple of years ago. However, after a laboratory examination in Israel, it turned out that the spirit contained toxic substances. After that Israel refused to import the Armenian spirit. Sources say the toxic substances found in the spirit are a result of the toxic substances exhausted by the Ararat gold extraction factory, which have been transferred from stocked up grapes.
– I don’t know. It’s impossible. (We also tried to find out from the factory, but they didn’t reply.-A.A.)
– They say that the “Vedanta Resources” copper-extracting factory based in Zambia has closed because it endangered one of the rivers there.
– According to our sources, the Zambia factory functions normally and hasn’t closed.
– This is already the second time that the Ministry of Environmental Protection is discovering hidden gold on the part of your factory and that’s the reason why AGEC and the Ministry are going through court trials. How did your “conflict” end?
– We have never hidden gold and deny any allegations. The case is under investigation at the Armenian court and we’re waiting for the verdict.
– Last year, president of “Vedanta Resources” Anil Agarwal came to Armenia and met with President Robert Kocharyan. What issues were discussed?
– During the meeting with the Armenian President, Mr. Agarwal proposed to make a 100 million dollar investment and implement a separate amplification project for AGEC. The proposed investment and the amplification project will include investigation, optimization of the mining equipment and ores, remodeling, addition of an auto-cleaning machine and work aimed towards the improvement of auxiliary equipment and infrastructures. We have already decided the number of orders and have made a 30 million dollar prepayment and another 15 million has been spent on legal consulting and preparatory work. We have already received the first line of mining equipment.
– Is the owner of AGEC thinking about selling the factory if, of course, he receives a suitable offer?
– There has not been such a proposal in the past nor is there one now. We have long-term plans in Armenia and the long-term contract with Vedanta is the guarantee for that.