“Gavigudet” Attended Public Deliberation of Scoping Report of LLC “Aglomerate”

On April 15, “Gavigudet” attended public deliberation of scoping report – Project of Arrangement and Operation of Metallurgical Ore and Agglomeration Plant of LLC “Aglomerate” in Rustavi. After the meeting, our team visited the project area on site.

LLC “Aglomerate” planes to arrange operation of metal-bearing ore roasting and sintering enterprise, which will produce 66,000 t/year of agglomerate annually for 7920 hours. For this purpose, 8 “baking trays” will be placed in the production area. To clean the air dust generated during the sintering process, the factory envisages the arrangement of a two-stage dust collection system with an efficiency of 98%. Inorganic dust, manganese dioxide, nitrogen dioxide, NO2, sulfur dioxide, SO2, carbon dioxide, CO, chromium (Cr + 6), zinc oxide, lead and its compounds, nickel metal, cadmium sulfate, cadmium sulfate, Mercury, selenium, Se, which are the main pollutants in the air, will be emitted during the operation of the enterprise.

A working group meeting was held on February 18 to discuss the scoping report, where prepared notes and recommendations can be found at the link.

The initial report was rejected by the Ministry and therefore no public hearing was held.

The company submitted an updated report on March 25, 2022, in this report our comments on following issues were also considered:

– According to the scoping document, the area with the cadastral code 02.05.03.420 belonged to JSC “Sakmshenindustria” while on the basis of electronic verification we determined that the area was the property of “Aglomerate” Ltd. The updated scoping report of the enterprise indicates that the area with the cadastral code 02.05.03.420 belongs to LLC “Aglomerate”.

– In the technological alternatives it was stated, that the total efficiency of the dust-collection system would be equal to not less than 99%, while the description of the technological process and the alternatives to the dust-collection system stated that the total efficiency of the two-stage dust-collection system was 98%. The technological alternatives in the updated document states, that the efficiency of the dust collection system is less than 98%.

– In the chapter on alternatives for the selection of the area, it was mentioned that in the future it was planned to transfer the selected production area to LLC “Aglomerate”, although a lease agreement would be signed at the first stage. This issue needed to be corrected, as the area was already owned by LLC “Aglomerate”. The updated report indicates that one of these areas is owned by JSC “Sakmshenindustria” and the other by LLC “Aglomerate”.

The company representatives promised us at the meeting, that in addition to these remarks, our other comments would also be taken into account.

The article was prepared in the framework of the project “Defending Our Right to Clean Air in Rustavi” which is implemented with the support of the “European Endowment for Democracy”.