Pashinyan: It is too early to draw final conclusions on activities of "Lydian Armenia"

ArmInfo. The inspection bodies carried out some checks related to the activities of Lydian Armenia, based on which an interim report was drawn up, but for a final conclusion, it is necessary to conduct one more interim examination, Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan stated during a videoconference on Facebook.

He recalled that a criminal case has been instituted in the Investigative Committee on the fact of the activities of the Lydian Armenia company, within which an examination must be carried out. "It is very important that it be conducted by a foreign authoritative organization so that its results are not doubted either by the Armenian government or international partners, since this is a very delicate matter." The decision of the Armenian government on the activities of Lydian Armenia should be based only on incontrovertible facts. We are working on the acquisition of such facts, but at the moment there are none.  "There are some violations and anxiety, which has been recorded," the Prime Minister summarized.

 To recall, Lydian Armenia is a subsidiary of the British Lydian International, whose shareholders are also large international institutional investors from the United States, Great Britain and a number of European countries, including EBRD. The Amulsar project is the largest industrial project in Armenia for the development of the Amulsar gold deposit at a total cost of $ 370 million. In August 2016, a project for the construction and development of the field was launched. Preliminary work has been carried out since 2006.  The life of the Amulsar deposit will be 10 years and 4 months, an annual average of 200,000 ounces of gold (about 10 million tons of ore) is planned. The company's shares are quoted on the Toronto Stock Exchange.  Amulsar deposit is the second largest in Armenia.

The activity of Lydian Armenia from the very first days was criticized by ecologists, who by permanent protest actions undermine its work. The company has repeatedly provided evidence that protest actions are backed by specific stakeholders.