International experts investigate Sakdrisi gold mine issues

Major issues surrounding the Sakdrisi gold mine will be investigated by international experts in a bid to resolve the vast problems surrounding the mine.

Economic, cultural, social and environmental issues at the mine in southern Georgia may come to an end with the experts’ help.

Georgian Minister of Culture and Monument Protection Guram Odisharia invited a group of international experts to study unsolved problems related to Sakdrisi Mine and explore the status of the site, which some archaeologists believed is the world’s oldest gold mine.

The foreign experts will arrive in Georgia at the end of the week.

Meanwhile the Georgian Ministry of Culture has given the green light to Russian-owned gold and copper mining company RMG Gold to extract gold from the Sakdrisi mine.

On March 14, Deputy Culture Minister Alexander Margishvili said that the claim about Sakdrisi being the world’s oldest gold mine was "a myth.”

This news wasn’t received well by some. Earlier, a group of archeologists and non-governmental organisations (NGOs) opposed the company’s intention to launch an open-cast mine at the site. They believed this would make it impossible to continue further archeological research at the Sakdrisi-Kachaghiani prehistoric gold mine area.

Georgian National Union of International Council on Monuments and Sites (ICOMOS), which is an NGO dedicated to the conservation of the world's monuments and sites, released a statement about recent developments in the field of Cultural Heritage of Georgia.

ICOMOS Georgia estimated the archeological heritage Sakdrisi mine was being "wasted to fiscal and business interests”.

Archaeologist Goderdzi Narimanashvili said international conventions and the Association Agreement between the EU and Georgia obliged the Government of Georgia to take care of and protect the country's cultural heritage. He voiced the initiative of the National Council of Science Museums and the readiness to host an international conference on the issues related to Sakdrisi mine.

Head of Georgia’s Government Irakli Garibashvili did not believe the unsubstantiated claims that Sakdrisi was the [oldest] gold mine and mentioned his opinion at today’s Government meeting.

"This is not the oldest gold mine, it was not proven,” Prime Minister Garibashvili said.

"This company has invested 300 million dollars in the Georgian economy, 3,000 people are employed by this company and 3,000 families are behind these employees.”

He said the "fate” of the employees "should also be taken into consideration” when deciding on the future path of the Sakdrisi mine.

Meanwhile at a meeting with Tbilisi State University students, Garibashvili emphasized RMG Gold had proposed to build a museum in Bolnisi to house artifacts found as a result of archeological research at the site. The proposal did not allow for further archeological research on the site.

Garibashvili said cultural heritage was a "delicate issue” and there was a battle between cultural heritage and economic interests all over the world and in Georgia.

In 2013, the Ministry of Culture revoked the Sakdrisi mine’s status of a place of cultural heritage, citing the site had been enlisted through procedural violations. The Ministry decided the site should retain an archeological site status but after three months this status was also removed.

Now the site has been removed from the list of protected areas and RMG Gold is able to proceed with mining operations at the site.

At a press conference today RMG GOLD commercial director Soso Tsabadze said the company estimated interest groups were trying to discredit and hinder the company's business.

In late January last year, RMG Gold laid off more than 180 workers, which sparked a large percentage of workers to strike from the plant in the small town of Kazreti on February 14. The company said it was forced to lay off workers because of "significantly downscaled mining activities” as it was not able to dig gold from Sakdrisi.

Striking workers demanded a pay increase, improvement of working conditions and reinstatement of sacked employees, among other things.

Complaining over lack of attention by the Government, a group of strikers arrived in Tbilisi on March 7 and held a rally outside the Government’s office, after which the PM’s office said its representatives would try to mediate between the strikers and the employer.

The NGOs who opposed RMG Gold restoring work at the gold mine believed the Government echoed the investor company’s position toward the issue.

Sakdrisi Gold Mine is one of the oldest gold mines in the world and dates back almost 5,000 years. German and Georgian archeologists have been excavating the site since 2006.

Several German and Georgian archaeologists claim the gold mine was the oldest mine in the world. Georgian Ministry of Culture would not confirm if the gold and golden ores being mined were from the prehistoric era.