In the TOT of the Luhansk Region, the occupation administration is deploying another scheme of illegal exploitation of subsoil. In the Antratsytivskyi district, four "licenses" have been issued for the exploration and extraction of gold, as well as the search for copper and zinc. All permits are concentrated in one hand - LLC "Mining and Production Company "Severnaya", which received monopoly access to the site and the right to expand the work to an area of over 250 km². This is stated in the message of the National Resistance Center (NRC).
NRC sources said that "Severnaya" was created as a technical operator for work in temporarily occupied territories - with minimal obligations regarding ecology and social responsibility. The companies were provided with preferential conditions, simplified approval of projects and a closed control regime, which allows launching exploration without full-fledged examinations and public procedures. The occupiers also use cheap and aggressive technologies - in particular cyanide leaching and the use of mercury.
According to NRC analysts, the extraction of gold and related metals in such conditions will inevitably lead to mass poisoning of water resources. The use of cyanide leaching and heavy chemical reagents will cause toxins into groundwater and local rivers. As a result, the water will become unsuitable even for technical use, and wells and boreholes will become a source of chronic poisoning of the population. This means an increase in kidney and liver diseases, oncology and heavy metal poisoning among civilians.
The NRC emphasizes that the consequences for soils and air will be no less devastating. Mining operations will lead to the complete degradation of agricultural lands, the accumulation of cadmium, lead, arsenic in the soil layer and the entry of these substances into the food chain. Dust from dumps and quarries will spread for tens of kilometers, which will provoke a sharp increase in lung diseases, allergies and cardiovascular problems. Some territories will actually turn into ecological dead zones, unsuitable for life and economic activity for decades.
At the same time, a separate problem remains the complete opacity of the process. Local residents do not have access to information about the volume of mining, the level of pollution or security measures. Decisions are made behind the scenes, without any mechanisms of public control, and the real consequences are hidden or deliberately underestimated.
"In fact, we are talking about an accelerated pumping out of resources from the occupied Luhansk Region with the simultaneous destruction of the environment and the undermining of basic living conditions for the civilian population," the Center notes.
As Ukrainian News Agency earlier reported, according to the Center, russians are being lured into war with offers to work at the fictional "Luhansk NPP."
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