Armenia's acting PM Nikol Pashinyan said in Alaverdi city during electoral campaign that Teghut mine will be exploited after its tailing dump is renovated.
“This issue has been in my focus since the first day I was elected Prime Minister. When Teghut mine was exploited, it happened as a result of the 380 million USD credit received from Russian VTB bank. This February it turned out that there are problems with the tailing dump and a renovation is necessary for continuing the exploitation. Conditioned by this, they tried to take another loan, but failed to pay the previous loan. They also couldn’t take a new loan for the renovation of the tailing dump, sine both Teghut and the copper smelter were hypothecated for the previous loan. As a result, the Government invited VTB and Vallex and told them to negotiate and find a solution. As a result, Teghut passed under the control of the bank. We set an obligation before the bank to attract a new operator who will exploit that mine. Now our compatriot, Russian-Armenian Norik Petrosyan has set to that work. We have brought forward a precondition and set a task before Petrosyan, which is that there should be so many jobs at Teghut that in case this case is prolonged, the employees of the copper smelter could find a job at Teghut”, Pashinyan said.
According to the acting PM, some time is necessary to putting the mine into operation.
“It’s impossible to exploit the mine without the renovation of that tailing dump. Nearly 14 million USD is necessary for that, after which that mine will again operate”, Pashinyan said.