Gosgeonedra drew attention to the protests of Mariupol residents against zirconium mining
The State Service of Geology and Mineral Resources of Ukraine drew the attention of potential participants in the auction scheduled for the coming Monday to sell a special permit for a site near Mariupol with deposits of zirconium to the ongoing protests of local communities.
Chairman of Dergeonadr Roman Opimakh strongly recommends that before making a decision to participate in the auction and invest in the purchase of a special permit, a meeting with the community should be held, during which all the questions posed by the people should be answered. He said this yesterday on the Donbass TV channel.
“We're not going to mislead. In the current situation, hardly anyone will agree to pay money for a special permit, risking losing it without starting work. Everyone understands that there will be no constructiveness without a well-coordinated dialogue with local residents, ”Opimakh said.
The Gosgeonedra recalled that the laws of Ukraine provide for mandatory public discussions and obtaining a positive opinion on environmental impact assessment at the stage of starting the extraction of natural resources.
“A special permit for the development of the Azov area of zirconium ores and other rare earth materials provides for geological research without industrial development. That is, we are not talking about production on the territory of the site without obtaining a new special permit for production, ”the service said.
Twice the inhabitants of the village of Nikolskoye near Mariupol have already stopped the start of zirconium development - in 2004 and 2012. This year, protests began on January 30 after the decision to auction the zirconia site. On February 11, outside the village of Nikolskoye, residents of Mariupol, villages and settlements of Mangush and Nikolsky districts came out to a numerous rally against the development of a quarry with zirconium.
The protesters temporarily blocked the highway to Zaporozhye, organizing non-stop walking across the road.
Recall that the first auction for this property, January 12, 2021, did not take place due to the lack of interested investors. The procedure for holding auctions provides for the automatic announcement of re-bidding after 30 days and after 15 days, in case of repeated absence of bidders.
Earlier it was reported that representatives of the Mariupol region appealed to the central authorities. The management and representatives of the council collected appeals from communities that are part of the district, deputy fractions and groups, deputies of local councils, public organizations with a request to apply to the central authorities with a proposal to create a commission to study a possible threat in the development of the Azov site with the Azov ore occurrence of zirconium-rare earth mineralization .