Thursday, April 18 2019 17:21

ArmInfo.. Armenia intends to increase transparency in the field of subsoil use and mining. On  April 18, at the plenary session of the National Assembly of the Republic of Armenia, amendments to the Subsoil Code and the package of related laws are discussed.

Acting Minister of Energy Infrastructures and Natural Resources of  Armenia Garegin Baghramyan, who presented the package, noted that the  documents were developed on the basis of the standards adopted within  the framework of the Transparency Initiative, of which the republic  is a candidate country since March 2017. Speech, according to  Minister, is about identifying the real owners of mining companies.  The package presents the mechanisms for their identification and  registration procedure. Baghramyan noted that in Armenia there are  owners of mining companies that are registered in offshore zones, and  the task of the package is to identify the last company and  individual by registering them before November 30 of this year in the  state register of the republic. The law itself will come into force  on July 1 of this year. In case of non- registration, penalties will  come into force, up to and including the revocation of the license  and termination of the company's activities.

To note, at the end of last year, the National Assembly did not  manage to accept the package, having been dismissed. Standards of the  Transparency Initiative provide for an annual report on the  state-issued subsoil use licenses, production volumes, tax revenues  and other information in the field of mining. The amendments also  provide for the application of fines for violation of the  requirements for publicity in the field of subsoil use. In  particular, for violation of the deadlines for submitting a public  report to the government apparatus and the authorities, the relevant  officials will be fined in the amount of 150 thousand drams. If after  applying the fine, the company does not submit a corresponding report  within 10 days, the responsible person will be already fined 200  thousand drams.

A repeated violation of the requirement during the year will be  charged a fine of 300 thousand drams, after which the provision on  revoking the license and suspending the activities of the mining  company will come into force. Recall that on February 12 at the  government meeting, Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan reported that the  State Commission for the Protection of Economic Competition (SCPEC)  sent him a study stating that offshore companies are registered as  owners of most of the fields in Armenia. Nikol Pashinyan said that he  addressed this letter to the Ministry of Energy Infrastructures and  Natural Resources. "Why don't you hand over these documents to law  enforcement agencies to study," Nikol Pashinyan said then, addressing  Garegin Baghramian. He called for redirecting the investigation to  the Prosecutor General's Office of Armenia.

It should be noted that polymetallic deposits constitute a  significant part of the problems in the field of the mining industry  of Armenia. At the state balance of mineral reserves at the present  time are registered more than 670 solid mineral deposits with proven  reserves, including 30 metal. About 400 of these deposits are  exploited, including 22 metallic. For metallic minerals, there are 7  copper-molybdenum deposits, 4 copper, 14 gold and gold-complex-metal,  2 iron ore and 1 aluminum ore. There are also 15 tailing dumps in  Armenia, where waste accumulated during the operation of mineral  deposits, which exceed several million cubic meters and occupy a  total area of about 700 hectares, is accumulated. At present,  industrial wastes accumulated in tailings dumps, which are formed as  a result of industrial mining and mineral processing, are not used,  although they also contain significant amounts of polymetals.