Mine Control

Armenian groups trying to protect the Teghut forest confront a familiar obstacle: the government. by Arpi Harutyunyan 17 June 2008 YEREVAN | Earth-movers are already clearing swaths of trees in one of Armenia’s most pristine regions, but that has not stopped environmental pressure groups from lobbying the National Assembly to scrap a mining concession in the Teghut forest.

“We will be gathering here until the government deems the decision on Teghut [mine] exploitation nullified,” one protester said during a recent demonstration at the parliament, amid shouts of “Keep Your Hands off Teghut,” “Green and Clean Armenia,” and “Healthy Generation.”

“We want to personally meet the prime minister and prevent the exploitation at any expense, because it may otherwise destroy one of the unique forests of Armenia and also threaten the health of the future generations,” said Sona Ayvazyan, a member of the Teghut Defense Initiative and country director for Transparency International.

Many rural villages, like this one near Vanadzor in Armenia’s Lori region, struggle economically. But some residents fear mining operations at Teghut will bring more problems than opportunity. Photo by Timothy Spence

It is a familiar fight for conservationists in Armenia, where mining for copper, molybdenum, and other metals has enjoyed resurgence after production slumped in the years following independence from the Soviet Union in 1991. The industry provides badly needed jobs and export revenue but worsens the deforestation from illegal logging and poor land-use practices. Armenian Forests, a conservation group that works to restore threatened woodlands, estimates that the amount of forested land in the country has fallen from 25 percent to 8 percent in the last century.

In November the National Assembly approved a 25-year license to operate an open-pit copper and molybdenum mine in Teghut, located in the country’s Lori province 190 kilometers north of the capital, Yerevan.

Teghut is being developed by the Armenian Copper Program, a Yerevan-registered company backed by investors in Liechtenstein and Russia. The mine has the support of senior government leaders, including the president, who see the thousands of jobs expected to be created as vital to helping the economically blighted region for decades to come.

Mining opponents have urged Prime Minister Tigran Sargsyan to stop the logging and clearing of 357 hectares of forest in the ruggedly picturesque Lori region and to review the governmental approval, as well as develop a long-term strategy for sustainable development of the country’s considerable metal and mineral resources. Clearing at Teghut began earlier this year.

Conservation groups are becoming more assertive in their activism. In early June, some 50 people from Teghut and neighboring Shnogh village went to Yerevan to demand an end to the clearing. Besides protests at the National Assembly, on 9 May, the Teghut Defense Initiative organized a bicycle marathon to Teghut, distributing leaflets urging that the area be protected from exploitation. A rock concert was organized in the northern town of Vanadzor in support of the Teghut forest.

BOUNTIFUL REGION

The Lori region is a striking contrast to hot, dusty, and crowded Yerevan, home to one-third of Armenia’s 3 million people. The region is blessed with abundant plant life, verdant forests, and fresh air. Birds, animals, and fish flourish. The hills and mountains of the southern Caucasus landscape are bathed in fresh green in the spring and brilliant color in the autumn.

ACP will clear 357 hectares of forest to get to the copper and molybdenum buried beneath Teghut. That translates into about 57,700 cubic meters of timber.

Company representatives say the work will comply with national environmental laws, including one that requires massive replanting of the forest.

Conservationists, however, say the project means more than the loss of trees. Clearing steep slopes, they say, will cause erosion that will threaten nearby rivers and gorges. And they say the tree loss will be much greater, because the invasive type of mining also requires vast areas to deposit ore tailings, the waste product from the mine’s sifting operations.

Hakob Sanasaryan, chairman of the Greens Union of Armenia, says more than 170,000 trees growing on slopes of up to 45 degrees, including pear, walnut, and apple, will be logged and the company plans to sell the timber as firewood, at a price 10 to 20 times lower than the wood would fetch as lumber.

Razmik Terteryan, who is monitoring the project for the Orinats Yerkir (Rule of Law) Party, which has close ties to the governing Republican Party, said, “Our estimates show about 2,000 hectares of forest will be destroyed as a result of the mining and creation of the tailing and engineering infrastructure. As a result Teghut will become a landslide zone.”

Bird-watchers from the American University in Armenia environmental program search for a threatened species in the northern Lori region. Photo by Timothy Spence

The 26 representatives of another anti-mining group, SOS Teghut, say the approval of this project violates 77 laws and international agreements, including provisions of the constitution and rules on environmental protection, land-use planning, air quality, and forestry. For example, Armenian law prohibits cutting on slopes steeper than 30 degrees, while some of the slopes at Teghut are far steeper.

Silva Adamyan, chairwoman of the Ecological Public Alliance, claims impact assessments from the Ministry of Environmental Protection differ significantly from those provided by independent analysts. For example, the ministry approved the Teghut mining plans presented by ACP and its affiliated Institute for Mountain Metallurgy even though the plans lacked such required details as the costs for environmental protection and land compensation for villagers in neighboring Shnogh and Teghut.

Teghut’s metal reserves were identified 30 years ago at a time when Soviet Armenia provided one-third of the USSR’s molybdenum, while also producing nonferrous ores like gold and lead. Today, metals are the backbone of the country’s $1.2 billion in exports.

Ruben Papoyan, the Teghut mine regional director for ACP, says the availability of commercially exploitable reserves of the metals was confirmed in 1991 as the Soviet Union was nearing its end. Before the government finally issued the license to ACP last year, plans to exploit the site had been considered for years.

BY THE BOOKS

Vardan Aivazyan, a former minister for environmental protection, and ACP executive director Gagik Arzumanyan have defended the approval process. “Of course the natural landscape will be destroyed, but is it a reason not to implement the project? Any kind of economic activity implies some extent of damage. Roads, railroads are built today and they also harm the environment; shall we say we don’t need them?” said Arzumanyan, a former deputy minister of finance and economy.

“People have spent serious sums to find out there’s a large amount of copper and molybdenum, plus other metals in that area,” said Aivazyan, adding the land-clearing planned by ACP is minor, especially as the company intends to replant the forest cover.

Aram Harutyunyan, the current environment minister, has insisted that the Teghut mining deal was done in accordance with the law and will provide income for the state.

But some Armenians, including those most affected by the mining, believe the government may be trading an irreplaceable treasure for short-term gain.

“They say the forest in the neighboring areas will recover in 25 years. That’s impossible, simply because the trees in Teghut are centuries old. And we all know a sapling hardly becomes a tree in 25 years, let alone becoming a tree with a thick trunk and performing all the functions of providing biodiversity,” said Varsham Avetyan, who lives in Shnogh.

Teghut is considered one of the last virgin forests of Armenia, with 55,000 rare and 45,000 valuable trees as well as 55 animal species, some listed as endangered, according to WWF-Armenia branch director Karen Manvelyan.

“The future of the northern part of Armenia is unclear: the forest loggings and mine industry have already exterminated panther, chamois, and red deer. And the north of the country was the natural habitat of these animals,” Manvelyan said. “Birds, mammals will leave the place as soon as the mining starts. Significant damage will be caused to reptiles and plants.”

Armenia features stunning landscapes that make a sublime setting for remote monastaries like this one near Noravank. But conservationists fear mining, logging, and poor land use threaten to wipe out remaining forests. Photo by Timothy Spence

The Teghut forest is a relatively small part of the expansive, 1,970 hectares of land that will be part of the mine and associated operations. Some 380 hectares of the mining concession lie in neighboring communities, including privately held land plots. Up to 180 hectares is reserved for a tailing area in the Pakasajur River valley.

Sanasaryan, of the Greens Union, is concerned with the chosen location for the tailing area, which he fears can cause landslides. There is also a concern about toxic runoff from the copper, molybdenum, sulfur, arsenic, lead, zinc, and other metals bleeding into the Pakasajur.

ACP, which reported revenues of 24.3 billion drams ($79.5 million) last year, is not a stranger to controversy. Health and environmental officials have complained for years that its copper smelter in the northeastern Lori town of Alaverdy poses a health risk. The privately held company has acknowledged that the smelter’s 100-meter, Soviet-era smokestack lacks sufficient filters, leaving the town enveloped in a smoggy pall, but cites the high cost of meeting modern environmental standards for delays in reducing emissions.

Under ACP’s government contract at Teghut, the ore will be extracted through the open-cast method, which involves clearing the surface and sifting through soil in search of ore.

To mitigate the environmental damage, some conservation groups have suggest that Teghut be a closed mine – a far costlier option that requires underground tunneling and intricate safety measures.

But ACP officials say that’s not possible. Gagik Babayan, head of the geological survey group at the Teghut site, said the mine is not of a vein form, and therefore close-cast extraction would not work.

Papoyan defends plans for the mining operation, pointing out that it will provide an estimated 2,000 jobs. That was also a point made by then-Prime Minister Serzh Sargsyan, who took part in the launch of the mine on 3 November. Sargsyan, who is now the country’s president, acknowledged the environmental concerns but said ACP had met all its obligations.

“I think there’s no reason to worry, because the [Republic of Armenia] governmental decision clearly sets the rules of the game, and we, as the government, will be constantly watching this,” Sargsyan said at the time.

ACP is pumping a reported $250 million to $300 million into the project and expects Teghut to produce 30,000 tons of copper and 800 tons of molybdenum ore annually for at least 30 years. Demand for copper has been growing at nearly 4 percent per year in the past decade, and prices for the nonferrous metal hit record territory this year.

Molybdenum, a byproduct of copper mining, is valued for its versatility. It can be purified and added to lubricants and mixed with other metals. As an alloy, steel molybdenum’s ability to withstand extreme temperatures makes it useful for airplane parts and high-speed cutting tools.

Even those who support the economic benefits of Teghut worry about the impact on the 5,000 people who live in the Shnogh and Teghut villages, whose bucolic life and fruit trees that grow on hillsides will change when the mining operation is fully operational.

Harutyun Meliksetyan, who heads the Teghut village administration, and Koryun Shahinyan, deputy head of the Shnogh administration, both support the mine but share villagers’ concerns about the potential environmental costs.

“We are all concerned with preserving the forest, but more than the half of these village people are unemployed,” the Shnogh official said. “We think they will at least get jobs by the exploitation of the mine.”