Environmentalists, this week, lost the lawsuit filed against the Government of Armenia concerning one of the most controversial environmental issues – logging of Teghut forest in the north of Armenia and operating copper-molybdenum mines there.

Yet in 2009, EcoDar environmental NGO filed a lawsuit to RA Administrative Court appealing a number of decrees by state bodies approving the program of operating a copper-molybdenum mine in Teghut.

The Court, by an express trial held on March 24, rejected the appeal on the grounds of EcoDar NGO not being party in interest.

The same reason for dismissal was used twice before; however, based on the verdict by RA Court of Appeals verifying that EcoDar NGO is, in fact, party in interest, the Administrative Court accepted the case later rejecting it on the same ground.

“This is absurd,” says president of EcoDar NGO Hrayr Savzyan, clarifying that the court did not hold a proper hearing and brought in an illegal verdict.

In November 2007, RA Government issued its first decree on operating a copper-molybdenum mine in Teghut giving the license to operate the mine for 25 years to Armenian Copper Program (ACP) from Lori province, Armenia.

Teghut mines are the second largest in Armenia after Kajaran. Acording to experts' calculations, the mine has more than 1,6 million tons of copper and 100,000 tons of molybdenum.

Right from the beginning environmentalists showed strong resistence to the decision of operating the Teghut mine.

While three years in a raw they have been alerting about the irrevocable damage to the environment (ecosystem of the forest, threatened anymal species and plants registered in the Red Book, huge damage to human health because of wastes, etc.), ACP management points out workplaces that have been and will be created for the local population as well as the big role of mining industry in spuring Armenia's economic growth.

The program initially envisaged to log 357 ha of forest out of 1563 given allotted to ACP.

“Forest logging volumes have been less than planned – about 43 ha,” Vahram Avagyan, Public Relations representative of Vallex Group, told ArmeniaNow.

ACP also points at the newly planted forests with 108 ha total surface in administrative areas of Teghut, Shnogh, and Lernahovit communities of Lori province.

ACP is planning to carry out more forest-planting – double the volume (714 ha) of forest to be logged for mining purposes.

These plans, however, do not satisfy environmentalists, who say that by the time those trees grow, endangered rare species populating those forests and the whole ecosystem will be destroyed.

ACP’s response to EcoDar NGO’s appeal proves that the appeal itself and the appealing side’s opinions on the facts, actions and circumstances are groundless,” says Avagyan.

President of EcoDar Savzyan claims that the appeal is grounded and that they will continue the struggle taking it, if needed, to the European Court.

The mine was planned to start operating in 2011, however, because of lack of financial partners and investments, only partial works are being carried out now.