For a month now, instead of its usual smell of the evergreen forest, the air in Stepanavan has reeked of mazut. The smell emanates from the grounds of the Plasma factory, where over 1,000 wooden poles saturated with mazut (fuel oil) and other chemicals were delivered a month ago.
On March 30, the Armenian Copper Company held a public hearing to present its program for the exploitation of the Teghut mine. The program includes the destruction of 600 hectares of natural forest, since Armenian Copper plans to open and exploit the copper and molybdenum mines located underneath it.