[Translation prepared by Business & Human Rights Resource Centre]

Siberian villages rebel against Russian authorities, 28 September 2019

...Golevskaya mining company plans to build a highway from the Ak-Sugskoye field in Tuva to the Zhuravlevo railway station, and a section of the route of more than 190 km from the village of Thirdsatka to the Tomskaya River will pass in large sections directly along the water protection coastal zone of the Kazyr River, another 13 km - along the bank of Tomskaya.

A year ago, Novaya (No. 92), in reports from Tuva, wrote about how its subsoil was being exported non-stop. So far, along the Usinsky tract there is a round-the-clock iron flow from long trucks and heavy trucks, in addition to Elegestine high-quality coal, in the bodies there are bags of polypropylene up to 3 tons, in them there are zinc, lead, copper concentrates, also in this ore there is cadmium, selenium, barium, gold, silver. This is from Toji...

There is also the Ak-Sugskoye field. One mining and processing plant here has already launched the Chinese Longxing. The mine is an open mine, and the Chinese rake and remove everything, including soil, tree roots, and grass. And now they are also planning to launch heavy trucks along the Kazyr coast; from the project documentation it is clear: the estimated average annual intensity of freight traffic in both directions is 298 vehicles per day. That is, every five minutes, day and night. The main cargo is copper-molybdenum concentrate. “To prevent the loss of which and reduce dust during transportation, car body covers are used,” this is where the protection measures are exhausted (quote from the preliminary environmental assessment of the project, prepared by order of the Golevskaya GRK itself). And those living in Kazyr have the right to fear that the rock will end up in the river, and the local flora and fauna, incl. Red Book, will disappear, that the dark coniferous taiga in the upper reaches of the river will be cut down...