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International and local experts will gather in Yerevan on November 30 for a one-day conference examining mining and socio-economic policy in Armenia, the American University of Armenia reports. 

AUA is organizing an event that aims to assess the choices available to Armenia as it seeks to balance economic gains with that of social equity and environmental health. The conference will be held in AUA’s Manoogian Hall, from 9:30am-5:30pm (Yerevan time). It will livestream online at http://aua.am/mining.

Over the past decade, the Armenian Government has made mining a priority for Armenia’s economic growth. However, no serious public debate has occurred to examine policy choices available to Armenia regarding mining. With this conference, AUA hopes to begin such a critical public discourse, bringing together experts from across the world to present their analyses and discuss socio-economic policy choices available to Armenia.

The day-long conference will begin with the keynote speaker Dr. Saleem Ali, Director of the Centre for Social Responsibility in Mining at the University of Queensland, Australia. Dr. Ali will talk about international experience in the role of mining in economic growth and social development. Following this presentation, experts will briefly present a statistical overview of mining in Armenia. The event will then hold three panel discussions focused on Armenia. The first panel will examine whether mining can play a key role in Armenia’s economic growth, while the second panel will focus on mining’s impact on Armenia’s environmental and public health. The third and last panel will explore whether Armenia’s legal and institutional framework on mining fosters socio-economic development.

These issues will be discussed against the larger backdrop of a growing unease in and outside Armenia on the potential benefits and risks of mining to the country’s socio-economic and environmental future. Thus far, the social, environmental and public health concerns have been overshadowed by the argument that Armenia does not have many choices and mining will be the growth engine of its emerging economy. In the past two decades, however, there have been many constructive developments around mining in the international arena. The industry as a whole has improved its practices, while international organizations and governments have adopted standards for environmentally cleaner and socially more equitable mining.

This conference aims to become a model for a constructive and high-impact way in which AUA can contribute to public-policy debates in Armenia. The day-long event is open to the public. The presentations and discussions of the conference will also be made available on YouTube post event. For more information and updates visit http://aua.am/mining.