In Armenia, Razdan residents ask Public Council to stop iron mine

About 600 residents of the city of Razdan have addressed their letter to the Public Council under the President of Armenia asking not to launch the iron mine, located in close vicinity of the city.

Inga Zarafyan, chair of the ecological organization "Ecolur" believes that as a result of operation of the mine, the nearby Razdan will be covered with dust.

According to her story, given the results of the independent examination, conducted under the order of the Razdan Aarhus-Centre by the experts from the American University of Armenia, the Razdan iron minefield contains, apart from iron, heavy and toxic metals, such as chromium, selenium and arsenic.

"Exploitation of the mine in these circumstances will lead to irreversible consequences," she said.

According to the UN expert Karine Danielyan, Chairperson of the "Association for Sustainable Development", the dust formed during operation of the mine, will be toxic, since it will absorb heavy metals. "It is a great threat to both the city and the Razdan River, which is located quite close to the mine," the ecologist stressed.

Meanwhile, Vardan Aivazyan, Chairman of the Parliamentary Commission on Economic Affairs and ex-Minister of Environment, has treated the ecologists' anxiety as groundless. "The process of ore extraction and separation of black iron from it takes place in a closed crusher, without any chemical reactions," he has noted.

In their turn, officials of the Chinese company "Fortune Oil", which purchased the mine in January this year, assert that the metals present in the mine do not exceed the admissible ecological standards.