Lydian International is committed to constructive dialogue with our stakeholders and respects their right to scrutinise our environmental and social performance. This kind of interaction is essential to ensure that investors in major projects are held accountable for any impacts that they may have on people or the environment.
We also appreciate that the author Peter Liakhov asked us for comment as part of his research for the ‘Armenia: before the goldrush’ article (dated 31 January 2017). However, there are a number of inaccuracies and areas where evidence has been neglected in the article, and we believe it is important to correct these for the benefit of our stakeholders and oDR’s readers. These include:
- The article states that ‘many’ within the local community ‘fear that the mine will irreparably damage the little they do have’. We recognise that there are some concerned local residents, and we are engaged in constructive and continuing dialogue with them to seek to understand and address their concerns. However there is significant backing for the project among local people. For example, the IFC (the part of the World Bank which invests in private sector projects and sets the international standard for good practice on social and environmental performance) conducted a detailed Broad Community Support survey in 2016 and concluded that the Amulsar project has broad support from local communities.
