ArmInfo. The problem of the Teghout deposit must be solved as soon as possible. On August 29, the Minister of Energy Infrastructures and Natural Resources of Armenia Arthur Grigoryan told journalists. According to him, the problems mainly concern the tailing dump, and the risks in this connection. It is important for the Armenian government to assess these risks in order to avoid environmental disasters. The Minister stressed that an agreement has been reached with the company operating the deposit to carry out comprehensive studies to solve the problem. This issue, according to the head of the department, has an important social significance, as 800 employees of the company were left without work. "We will try to solve all problems related to the safe operation of the deposit as soon as possible," the minister stressed.
The group of companies Vallex, which is engaged in the development of the Teghout deposit, made a statement on February 5 about the temporary suspension of work and the dismissal of 1,200 employees. The company noted that due to ongoing work to expand the activities at the Teghout deposit, both local and international organizations were invited and a decision was made to suspend the work before they made their conclusion. At the same time, the company noted that they will try to employ the dismissed employees on other enterprises of the Group.
The investments of the Vallex group of companies in the mining sector of Armenia and Artsakh have exceeded $ 700 million over the past 20 years. Investments in the Teghut deposit (Armenia), developed by the Group, exceed $ 400 million, which created 1150 jobs, a modern mining and dressing plant and equip its modern equipment.
The mine's enrichment potential, according to estimates made in Soviet times, is 450 million tons, of which the company confirmed the availability of a fifth of the resources, but research continues. At the moment, the production capacity of the enterprise allows processing up to 50,000 tons of copper concentrate per year and producing 13,000 tons of blister copper.
The Group also includes the company "Base Metals", "Armenian Cape Program" operating in Karabakh, which carries out copper smelting in the city of Alaverdi, Lori region, ZAO "Institute of Mining Metallurgy" and LLC "Vallex IT", working in the field of information technology. The companies of the group in Karabakh and Armenia employ about four thousand people.