Amulsar mine - a disaster waiting to happen Armenia's plot to poison the Caspian Sea

For anyone who has been to the territories of Azerbaijan liberated from years-long Armenian occupation, it is not a secret how the occupiers treated our nature. Cut down valuable forests, rivers polluted with chemicals, mined fields, scarce fauna - all this is a direct consequence of the fact that for nearly 30 years, these lands were ruled by invaders who did not consider their homeland, but a trophy, to be ruthlessly exploited, monetizing their temporary military successes.

The "iron fist" of the Azerbaijani army under the leadership of President Ilham Aliyev smashed the head of all those who had encroached on our land. Our army liberated these lands. But, alas, Armenians have left a terrible legacy, and not only lands densely planted with mines but also the most serious environmental problems, which Azerbaijan has to solve. Obviously, this was not enough for Armenians and now there is disturbing news on the Amoulsar gold mine to be developed in the border region of Armenia with Azerbaijan...

Slow-acting poison

Plans to intensively develop this mine can't help worry us, as it is located close to the conventional border with Azerbaijan, near the Kalbajar region. It is clear why it is so tempting for Armenian authorities. Tentatively, the second-largest reserve of pure gold in Armenia, it, according to preliminary data, contains about 31 million tons of ore and 40 tons of pure gold. In order to extract the gold it is necessary to use 100 tonnes of sodium cyanide annually, which can harm water resources, in particular Goycha Lake and even the Caspian Sea.

At the same time, environmentalists in Armenia are well aware of the scale of the possible catastrophe. Back in October 2016, environmental activists staged a protest in front of the Armenian government, arguing that the operation of the mine would lead to unjustifiable environmental risks. But all this time their demands have been ignored, which is not surprising - many political forces in Yerevan, including those with dreams of revenge, see in the gold of the Amoulsar deposit a way not only to revive the country's collapsing economy but also to pump some weapons into the Armenian army weakened in autumn 2020. In the confrontation between politics and ecology, the latter most often loses - gold mining promises Armenia about 280-300 million dollars of profit annually...

Besides, the Pashinyan government actually left the environmental activists and the company developing the mine face to face. It neither interferes with the dispersal of the activists nor introduces a ban on the mine development, acting according to the principle of being on both sides of the fence. The clashes, which are fierce, continue.

Pashinyan understands that whichever side he takes in the conflict is fraught with negative consequences for his power. It is a very comfortable but not very dignified stance.

Uranium and corruption trail

Officially, the Armenian authorities are pointing to the results of the three completed environmental impact assessments, but even the Armenian public itself has great doubts and fears about their objectivity. The Armenian environmentalists are convinced that the development of the mine is fraught with great ecological disasters.

In particular, the Armenian media has a statement by the late head of the Environmental Research Centre of the Academy of Sciences of Armenia, Doctor of Geological Sciences Armen Saghatelyan, who stated that Amulsar is a mine with a huge amount of sulphur. "The open mine will allow all the surface water and sediments to immediately seep into the rock mass, dissolving the sulfur, which will get into the river system. This is an unmanageable risk as nature has no mechanism for self-purification from heavy metals and exposure to toxic foods manifests itself decades later in the form of cancer, and reproductive and hereditary damage. Heavy metals are embryotoxic, i.e. they affect pregnant women, mutagenic, i.e. they affect heredity, and carcinogenic, i.e. they cause cancer. We actually have this problem in various regions of Armenia, but without solving it we rush to create a new one in the form of Amulsar mine," Saghatelyan said.

In his turn, David Pipoyan, Head of Food Chain Risk Assessment Information and Analytical Centre, associates the main danger of Amulsar gold mine development with cyanide, which is an evaporating substance and may end up in soil, water, and food after the mine development. "Only a detailed study of the Amulsar area will make it possible to understand what kind of changes agricultural products in this region may be subjected to once the mine starts operating. However, such studies have not been conducted and probably will not be conducted, as neither the government nor the project operator is interested in this," he said.

For his part, chairman of "The Union of Greens of Armenia" NGO Hakob Sanasaryan stated a few years ago that the Amulsar deposit, besides gold and silver, is also rich in aluminum, radioactive uranium, and thorium deposits, as a result of which the mining company plans to get substantially more profit than declared and Armenian authorities to get access to radioactive materials. The Armenian media repeatedly speculated that Armen Sarkisian and other representatives of Armenia's former political elite had a material interest in the development of the Amulsar deposit and that they were "protecting" the project...

Azerbaijan stands against

Naturally, Azerbaijan's environmentalists are not immune to the news about the forthcoming start of intensive exploitation of the mine. Yes, Amulsar is in Armenia, but practically near our borders, so Baku cannot and should not wait indifferently for an environmental disaster near its borders, which sooner rather than later will affect the nature of the entire South Caucasus region!

In particular, environmental expert Rauf Mammadov told Caliber.Az that he has been closely monitoring the situation around the mine for several years.

"The most alarming for me are reports that there are plans to actively use sodium cyanide for gold extraction at the mine. What is that? The strongest poison for humans, and for all living things, practically like potassium cyanide. It is an inorganic medium sodium salt of hydrocyanic acid. When ingested, it inhibits tissue respiratory enzymes and tissues lose their ability to absorb oxygen from the blood. Sodium cyanide is a poisonous colourless crystal, easily soluble in water. Where does this water go afterwards? First of all to Arpachay and Bazarchay rivers in Armenia (which flow into the Araz River, which in its turn flows into the Caspian Sea), then to the Goycha Lake, and later to our other rivers. The ecosystem of South Caucasus is closely linked and at a certain stage, the poisoning of rivers will outgrow the scale of Armenia - the poison will get into nearby Azerbaijani and Georgian rivers, and from there it will flow to the Kura and Araz, and then to the Caspian Sea. Can you imagine the scale of the disaster?

More than 20 million people live on the shores of the Caspian Sea, inhabiting five countries - Azerbaijan, Russia, Kazakhstan, Turkmenistan, and Iran. When the Armenian toxic acids, metals, sulphates and nitrates flow into the Caspian Sea, no one will be happy. This step by Armenia is a direct violation of the Convention on the Protection and Use of Transboundary Watercourses and International Lakes, adopted in Helsinki in 1992 and entered into force in 1996. The Convention requires participating countries to prevent, control, and reduce transboundary impact and to use transboundary waters in a reasonable and equitable way, ensuring their sustainable management. And here the Armenians are going to poison millions of people and living beings!" the ecologist stated.

In his opinion, from an environmental point of view, Armenia is treated as a backward African country.

"Foreign investors act in Armenia like colonisers in Africa. Let us remember that the same Germans, the German companies operating in Azerbaijani lands during the Armenian occupation, supposedly environmentalists, turned Azerbaijani rivers into poisons by pouring untreated toxic waste into them! The same Istisu is a resort city for Armenians, with mineral water deposits and many jobs there. So? They open a toxic production facility next to it, actually ruining both the resort and poisoning the local population. The investors will have their profit from the mine, exploiting it in a predatory manner, and then they will depart and leave all the sodium cyanide for the Armenians, who will drink the poisoned water. Not only them, but the Azerbaijanis, Iranians living along the Araz River, and residents of the Caspian countries will drink this cyanide, and the soil will absorb it. It is clear that Pashinyan is tuning with the West, but how can he spit upon his own people, his neighbours? Twenty-two Armenian NGOs and environmental organisations have recently issued a joint statement dissatisfied with the Armenian government's decision to reopen the Amulsar mine. But the mine is still being opened. With this Armenia is ready to blow up the ecology of the region, to kill nature, to kill people," said Mammadov.

"Barren Mountain" - this is how the word "Amulsar" is translated from Armenian. I am afraid we will soon have to rename it Poison Mountain, a symbol of how the Armenian authorities' desire to make quick money makes them spit on environmental security, on their own people, on the health of people, and on their neighbours in the region. The potential harm to the environment can never be justified by Armenia's profits from the exploitation of the deposit. However, the Pashinyan government persists in hammering nails into the coffin of the ecology of the entire region...