Azerbaijan restarts controversial gold mine

Azerbaijani officials have given the green light to restart operations at a controversial gold mine after more than a year’s hiatus amid public protests over pollution concerns.

Problems at the mine near Soyudlu village in western Azerbaijan’s Gadabay district began in mid-2023 when its operator, Anglo Asian Miningsought to build a second artificial lake to manage mine tailings. The announcement at that time caused a severe reaction from local residents. Security forces, in turn, used force to quell the protests, including the widespread use of pepper spray-like substances against elderly protesters. Several arrests were also reported. Local residents have opposed the planned expansion, saying lax standards in the disposal of toxic waste created by mining operations are causing serious health problems and poisoning the surrounding farmland.

In addition to the crackdown on local protesters, the authorities closed off the area, preventing media coverage of protests and their consequences. At the same time, the President of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev criticized practices of the mine operator and promised that environmental standards would be met. Mine operations were suspended.

That hiatus lasted just over a year.

On August 5, Anglo Asian Mining announced that it received a permit to resume operations, including the expansion of an existing pond containing toxic waste.

“We have also begun mobilizing resources to restart the flotation and agitation leaching process and expect to resume full production in about a week. This marks the end of a year-long outage and we look forward to normalizing production,” CEO Reza Vaziri said in the company’s statement.

Anglo Asian Mining is the country’s largest gold and copper producer and owns the rights to eight deposits across the country. Azerbaijan generated about $162 million in gold exports in 2023, down about 14 percent from the previous year’s total of $188 million. A investigation report published by OCCRP in 2016, revealed that Aliyev’s daughters, Arzu and Leyla, had extensive interests in Azerbaijan’s gold mining industry at the time.

The renewed operations at the mine come as Aliyev’s administration prepares to host the annual UN environment summit, or COP29, in Baku. The mine near Soyudlu now threatens to become a focal point of unwanted attention, at least from the officials’ point of view, on the government’s environmental record, along with other contentious issues, including from Baku. the disappearance of green space and an increase lack of water in the center of Azerbaijan.

The announcement generated a lot of heat on social media. A Facebook user he commented on the news: “The health of the people is of no importance to the oppressive government. This is why ordinary citizens were put in prison (in Soyudlu), so that when the construction works resume, people will remain in fear.”

“COP29 visitors should also be taken to see the toxic waste lake,” wrote another.

Of Eurasianet.org

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