Shahumyan Mine open-cast development project was called an open genocide of people in Facebook Social Network. We speak about the project by Deno Gold Mining Company, according to which Shahumyan gold-polymetetallic mine will be developed in open-cast manner. Thus the territory of Kapan Town will be exposed to explosions, dust and millions of tons of dumps containing toxic elements, as it is partially located above the mine. “Local specialists point out those terrible consequences that approximation of the would-be developed mine will lead to,” says the response to this project. NGOs responded to the alarm signal disseminated in Facebook Social Network. On 13 January the discussion of this project took place at the Aarhus Center in Yerevan. This project hasn't been submitted for environmental expert assessment so far, but both the regional administration, and Kapan Mayor and the Armenian Government already speak about it as an established project. First of all, 50,000 trees have been cut down for this project implementation, orchards the company bought from the people. The government decision on changing the status of land areas are needed for this purpose. As a rule, this decision is issued with the following decision: or the purposes of public interests priority. This argument is always cited when a private company intends to increase its own profit at the expense of public and national wealth, such as copper, gold, molybdenum, zinc, silver, iron, and eventually uranium. Neither the state, nor people benefits from this, just the opposite, national wealth turns into a global network of dumps and tails. Open-cast development of mines in Armenia means its end. This was the opinion of the discussion participants who decided to launch a public protest campaign against this particular project, and conceptual decision connected with mine development in Armenia, in general. 14.01.2011

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