Armenia’s Ministry of the Environment has given the green light for open-pit basalt mining on the outskirts of Yerevan.

The mine, in the Armavir village of Parakar, lies a few kilometers west of the Yerablur Military Pantheon.

Khitch LLC plans to extract 2,841 cubic meters of basalt annually for processing.

The Yerevan Municipality has recently begun monitoring the city’s air to determine the amount of pollution caused by area mining.

Many mining application have been rejected as a result of the monitoring.