Azerbaijan temporarily closes gold mine run by UK-registered company, 20 July 2023

The Azerbaijani government has suspended the operation of a gold mine near the village of Soyudlu, where locals protested a month ago claiming that the mine was poisoning them and their crops. 

On July 13, Azerbaijani Prime Minister Ali Asadov chaired a meeting of the commission studying the ecological situation in the village, which is situated in the western Gadabay district. The commission was created on June 21, a day after a huge protest took place in the village against the environmental and public health hazards posed by the work of the nearby Gadabay (Gedabek) gold mine, which is operated by the UK-registered Anglo Asian Mining company. The protest was brutally suppressed by police, and the village has been under tight police lockdown ever since. 

Villagers have for years complained that seepage of cyanide and other forms of toxic waste from a reservoir at the mine (known as a tailings dam) is causing health problems among locals, including cancer, as well as damaging crops. The June protest was triggered by plans to build a second reservoir for holding waste which locals contend would only exacerbate the problem.

At the commission meeting, Asadov instructed the ecology and emergency ministers to "investigate and rectify" the wrongdoings allegedly committed by the company in the area, which he said included "carrying out construction works in the waste reservoir three times in different years without coordinating with the relevant authorities, not conducting an expert review of project documents for the construction of the waste water reservoir, [and] not conducting an assessment of the stability of the reservoir." 

Given the "dangers that emerged in the village against nature and public health," Asadov decided to "temporarily'' suspend the operation of the Gadabay mine. 

It was also reported that the commission had chosen an unnamed "international company" and invited it to the village to conduct an ecological and geological audit. Anglo Asian Mining will be able to resume operating the mine "if it conducts its future work in accordance with the recommendations" of the audit, Asadov was quoted as saying...

...[T]he British company released a statement after a long silence, refuting the government's allegations. The company said that the ministry and other state bodies carried out monitoring in their existing wastewater facility in the past, and that no contamination had been found. 

"Accordingly, the sudden unrest over the location of the second tailings dam was unexpected," it continued. "Nevertheless, the Company, in collaboration with the Government, has agreed to a re-evaluation of the technical and environmental aspects of its second tailings dam, including the proposed location and other related matters."

On July 18, the state commission released its findings, according to which "the enterprise operating in the area violated the safety, environmental and sanitary rules, and the approval of the relevant executive bodies was not obtained in the process of operation and construction"...