Summary

Summary

Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan has come under enormous pressure related to the future of the Amulsar goldmine. A criminal case was opened against the US-UK owned Lydian International mining company a year ago (shortly after the Armenian "Velvet Revolution) in connection with the gold mining project at the Amulsar mountain near a resort town in the south of Armenia. Its outcome is still unclear. The results of an environmental impact assessment commissioned by Armenia's Investigative Committee are not straight forward. Protests against the mine's operations by environmental activists and locals who have blocked all access roads to the construction site have continued for over a year, the company suffering significant financial losses as a result (the reported amount of FDI in this project is approx. 300 000EUR). Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan has been under pressure boot the different stakeholders, including US and UK governments, having to weigh environmental considerations against the economic benefits of the project. Against the background of Lydian's warning of taking international legal action against the Armenian government, Prime Minister Pashinyan, who had been saying that environmental considerations would always come first, called on the protesters to unblock the roads on 9 September stating he saw no legal grounds for keeping the mine's operation on hold. The protestors did not leave. On 27 September, the Vice President of the Investigative Committee of Armenia Arsen Ayvaz-yan said the investigation into the Amulsar gold mine criminal case would continue because of the recently emerged new information. The situation is heavily politicised, with opponents (but also some supporters) of the revolutionary Armenian authorities uniting around this issue, albeit pursuing different goals.

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