Yesterday, the Kapan Municipal Council unanimously approved the allocation of 38 hectares of land to the Zangezur Copper-Molybdenum Combine (ZCMC).

The ZCMC, a division of Cronimet Mining AG, operates the open pit mine at its Kajaran deposit.

Kajaran is situated 345 km from Yerevan, the capital of Armenia and approximately 25 km from Kapan, the administrative center of the southern Syunik Province.

The land is near the village of Artsvanik, where the ZCMC operates a tailings dam.

The Kapan community will receive some 7 million drams annually as payment for the land.

Local environmental activists didn’t challenge the move as they did last year.

In 2015, the Armenian government seized 492 hectares of land from the villages of Artsvanik. Sevakar, Atchanan, Chapni and Syunik in an eminent domain deal. The government then suggested that local village mayors rezone the lands for commercial use and mining. The land was then to be handed over to ZCMC without any tender bid.

The land was to be used to expand the Artsvanik tailing dam. However, since the town of Kapan was enlarged in 2017, consolidating the villages in question, it was now the Kapan Municipality that had jurisdiction over the land.

Activist opposition to the land deal stymied any decision by the Kapan Municipal Council up until yesterday.

Top photo by Saro Baghdasaryan:  Artsvanik tailings dam