YEREVAN, SEPTEMBER 9, ARMENPRESS. Police say they’ve discovered an illegal mining operation which has caused nearly 95,797,000 drams in damages from 2013 to 2016 by illicitly mining travertine.

Police said in a news release that in 2013 a company bought mining equipment from another company and transferred a sub-leased 10 hectare area in Avshar village, Ararat Province to it. The area itself was at that time in the process of obtaining a mining license. The company went on to operate the mine and extract 2649,6 sq. meter (9717,9 cubic meters) of raw travertine. Nearly the entire extracted material was sold for cash without proper accounting paperwork, police said.

A criminal investigation has been launched.

Police did not disclose the name of the company or any suspects.

Edited and translated by Stepan Kocharyan