LARGE-SCALE CONSTRUCTION TO BE LAUNCHED AT TEKHUT DEPOSIT AT THE END OF THIS YEAR
ArmInfo
2007-06-26 16:31:00
The construction of a mining and processing factory will be launched at
Tekhut copper-molybdenum deposit in the next 6-7 months, the president
of Vallex Group Valery Mejlumyan says in an interview to ArmInfo.
He says that presently the company is working to change the
status of the land and to obtain the permission of the ecological
inspection. This work will be finished within the next few months. By
that time the company will have completed its negotiations with
Russian Vneshtorgbank for receiving a loan and involving the bank in
the project. Mejlumyan says that the bank will lend more than Vallex
Group will invest. It is quite possible that after the launch of the
project the group’s Alaverdi Copper Factory will be stopped. "If we
find a way to employ the factory’s workers at Tekhut, we will stop
the wasteful production of blister copper and will start exporting
concentrate," Mejlumyan says.
Commenting on the possibility of Vallex Group’s purchasing Sotq
gold field, Mejlumyan says: "We are not considering this possibility
yet. This is quite an interesting project: Sotq is situated between
our deposits in Drmbon and Lori; but I have yet no information that
Vedanta is going to sell that deposit." To remind, Vallex Group is
planning to borrow $200mln from Vneshtorgbank to be able to annually
mine and process 7,000,000 tons of ore at Tekhut. One of the group’s
company, Armenian Copper Programme, has got a 25-year license for
Tekhut. The approved reserves of the deposit total 1,600,000 tons of
copper and 99,000 tons of molybdenum.
Meanwhile, the Tekhut project has received an extremely negative
response from ecological organizations. It was for the same reason
that EBRD refused to take part in the project. As regards Sotq, the
Armenian Government is dissatisfied with the work of its operator,
AGRC, a company belonging to Vedanta Group (India), and is forcing
them to leave Armenia. The gold reserves of Sotq are estimated at 80
tons (2,600,000 ounces), of Meghradzor – less than 1 ton.