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A group of environmentalists are staging a protest outside the government building in Yerevan, Armenia, against the renewed exploitation of Amulsar gold mine owned and operated by Lydian Armenia.

Earlier on Wednesday, Armenia’s Investigative Committee published the results of an audit on Amulsar gold mine project tasked to an expert group of Advanced Resources Development (ELARD).

Although the report concludes that the exploitation of the gold mine will not cause any significant danger to the environment, environmental activists claim the findings of the audit have not been fully published and the mine operation poses great environmental risks.

A member of the Armenian Environmental Front, Levon Galstyan stated that the authors of the audit report failed to answer the question about whether the exploitation of Amulsar is safe or not, since the environmental expertise conclusion is incomplete.

“This is what the expert group said in the conclusion. Now question rises if it is impossible to answer that question and if these assessments are not trustworthy, how the Investigative Committee official declares publicly that there are no issues,” he said.

Environmentalist Anna Shahnazaryan invited the government members to step in and get acquainted with the findings of their study, stating the results of the Amulsar Project's Environmental Impact Assessment are incomplete and should be voided.