The Minister of Ecology of Armenia Vartan Ayvazyan and the gold extracting/researching companies are not getting along that well. There are currently two companies-the “Ararat Gold Extraction Company” (AGEC) and “Global Gold Mining” (GGM). First Ayvazyan, as head of the supervising committee, announced that the companies had gone beyond their limits and hadn’t fulfilled some of their responsibilities. The companies, in turn, complained that the ministry is coming up with different kinds of protest/letters in order to create obstacles for them.
The following is the conclusion of the recent letter sent from the Ministry of Ecology to the “Global Gold” company:
“Taking into consideration the fact that your company hasn’t completed the work, hasn’t presented any researched information and hasn’t signed a licensing contract, the Ministry of Ecology recognizes the special license given to the “SHA” INC on July 8, 2004 as invalid.”
The letter was sent to “Global Gold” on June 2, 2006. This has to do with the right to conduct geological/investigative research on the Marjan mine. It is worth mentioning that the American “Global Gold” company has researched three mining fields in Armenia so far-the “Tukhmanuk” in the Aragatsotni region, “Hankavan” in Kotayk region and “Getik” in the Gegharkunik region. Head of the Lithosphere Usage Department of the Ministry of Ecology Hrant Avetisyan says that the license for conducting research in Hankavan ended last year and the ministry ended the license term for research in Marjan by the abovementioned letter and because the company had not fulfilled its requirements. Director of “Global Gold” Ashot Poghosyan doesn’t agree with this last one.
“If the licensed organization violates one of the laws, it either has to receive a written warning and be given 90 days time so that he can cover up. If the organization doesn’t make up for the violations, then the ministry has the right to appeal to court. The organization may lose its license only after the decision of the court. We received a letter claiming that our license had already expired and hadn’t received a warning. The ministry didn’t set a deadline and there was no court decision. I would just like to say that this letter means nothing. As for the violations, our company hasn’t done anything against the law and has completed the work. Hrant was right when he said that “Global Gold” must complete its research until 2007. We are going to do that and finish it.”
Might I add that the right to conduct research in Marjan and Hankavan was first granted to the “SHA” INC and “Global Gold”, which owns 80% of shares, purchased that right in 2003. To this day, the company is keeping in touch with the Ministry of Ecology on behalf of “SHA”. “Global Gold” also has the rights and responsibilities of the “SHA” along with the shareholdings. The ministry has taken the license away from “Global Gold” (SHA) due to the fact that it didn’t complete the work. Currently, this only refers to the Marjan mine.l Director of the company A. Poghosyan contradicts that and says that they have informed the ministry that they are going to change their working methods and are going to use better methods of exploding the mines. The ministry representative said that until now, the company had come up with samples. According to A. Poghosyan, they have done some investigations which are more laboratorial and they are getting ready for field work. The letter sent from the ministry also states the following:
“The company hasn’t presented the investigations and hasn’t signed a licensing contract to this day.”
Poghosyan says that “Global Gold” had given a report to the ministry last December and they had signed and sent the contract separately. But the Ministry of Ecology didn’t do anything on its part; it didn’t even sign the contract. H. Avetisyan says that there was no such thing as a report. Some mine researching groups have presented their investigations about the mines they have researched.
“The “Global Gold” company’s research is only two pages, where you can’t even see what they’ve done. As for the contract, they wrote it however they saw fit. We have asked them many times to discuss the contract and come up with something in general, but they didn’t’ respond,” says H. Avetisyan.
“We asked for the ministry’s version of the contract, signed it and sent it so that they can sign it too, but they haven’t replied until now,” says Poghosyan.
This is a rather mixed-up story. In any case, it was clear to see that nothing had been done when I visited the mine. According to H. Avetisyan, only the state had helped do something in the mining field back in the 90s. The mine is located in Sisyan and only 3-4 kilometers away from Nakhijevan. There are bombs in the mines of that field. Before starting to conduct research, the researcher must free the field of any bombs and that still hasn’t been done. Judging from the fact that nothing has been done in the mining field for the past three years, you get the impression that the company probably doesn’t want to. This article simply served as a firm basis for us to remember the history of “Global Gold”.
Back in 1995, “Global Gold” and the “Armenian Gold” state-owned company formed the “AGEC” company together with the purpose of extracting the gold. Then in 1998, GG transferred 80% of its 50% to the Canadian “First Dynasty Mines Armenia” company, which in turn transferred all it had to “Vedanta Resource”. It’s obvious that the latter was also granted the right to extract the gold. I wasn’t able to find out from “Global Gold” just how much money it had invested in “AGEC” and what it got from transferring its 50% share.
What’s interesting is to see director of SHA Yura Lalazaryan mixed up in all this. He informed “168 Hours” that he has purchased the right to conduct research in the Marjan mine for 50,000 AMD, but he had sold 80% of his shares to “Global Gold” for 15,000 and 160,000 dollars. Now, when it’s time for investments, it seems as though “Global Gold” wants to resell its shares and maybe even get some more profit. It looks like history repeats itself-when it comes time to make real investments, “Global Gold” shares its shareholdings with other companies. I also get the impression that the Armenian government is leading the company to this. The announcements on the part of the company and the ministry are so contradictory that you feel that both are trying to hide something. Based on the announcements, I come to the conclusion that there are disagreements about the shady agreements.