Besik Kirtadze met with the Minister of Environment Protection and Agriculture

The newly appointed special manager of Georgian Manganese Besik Kirtadze met with the Minister of Environment Protection and Agriculture Otar Shamugia.

During the meeting, parties discussed what kind of regular and consistent measures should be taken in order to minimize damage caused by mining to the environment, as much as possible.

"Since the state's special management mode was implemented in the company, we progressed for sure, however, along with this progress, challenges have emerged in the field of environment; therefore, new plan is focused on solving such challenges. We have an action plan for the following years and we will do our best to overcome new challenges gradually with the team of GM", said Besik Kirtadze.

"It is very important for a business creating economic wealth in the country to be in charge of environmental protection and ecology. Our goal is to improve existing situation step by step through consistent measures. Accordingly, the company should develop a two-year action plan for eliminating the damage caused to the environment by the mining process in agreement with the Ministry, where measures and specific deadlines will be defined. These are challenges accumulated over dozens of years, obviously, it will not be possible to solve all of them in a short time, however the position of the Ministry is principled, that certain critical issues should be resolved in timely manner", said Otar Shamugia.

The timeline of the 2-year action plan which will be basic for Georgian Manganese actions in overcoming environmental challenges will be approved in the nearest future.