On the 16th of December 2016, Armenia’s Ministry of Nature Protection gave positive conclusion for the changes in the extraction project of Kajaran copper-molybdenum mine operated by “Zangezur copper-molybdenum Combine” CJSC (ZCMC) [part of Cronimet]. Negative outcomes for the ecology are obvious in the updated and confirmed project. However, today we would like to pay attention to another aspect that exposes the formality of conclusions and permissions given by the state bodies and complete absence of control in this sphere. According to the positive conclusion given by the Ministry, the company will be permitted to extract up to 22 million tons of ore from Kajaran mine instead of 12.5 million permitted currently...This means that the company operating the mine has had no right to extract more ore than the volume permitted by the authorized state bodies. Thus during the past 7 years ZCMC extracted and processed 29.7 million tons more ore than permitted as a result of which same amount of additional ore wastes were dumped into Artsvanik tailing, thus increasing the volume of environmental pollution. Naturally, the volumes of waste rock dumps, different reagents used in flotation, various emissions into air and water have thus correspondingly increased...