Vallex Group assures that it has no connection with legal proceedings  against Teghut CJSC

ArmInfo. Vallex Group has not filed a lawsuit and has nothing to do with legal proceedings against Teghut CJSC, the Vallex Group statement reads.

The statement, in particular, reads: "Within the framework of the  instituted legal proceedings against CJSC Teghut, in the court of  general jurisdiction of Lori region, former employees of CJSC Teghut  held protest actions and made statements  unreasonably speculating on  the name of Vallex Group. In response to this information, the  company reports that it is in no way related to this legal proceeding  and has not filed a lawsuit against Teghut.

It is noted that the trial, the first meeting of which took place  today at the residence of Alaverdi court of general jurisdiction of  Lori, was initiated on the private suit of the former General  Director of "Teghut" CJSC Sahak Karapetyan. The latter requires that  the decisions of the Council and the sole shareholder of JSC Teghut  be recognized as invalid and unlawful, and, as a result, the  restoration of the position of general director and member of the  CJSC Council. "The process of reviewing the above lawsuits will in no  way prevent the possible restart of the Teghut mining complex," the  statement reads.

The relevant formation is available n the website of the judicial  information system www.datalex.am.  "According to the information of  the system, which is publicly available, as a result of another trial  of Teghout, also unrelated to Vallex Group, the court took measures  to secure the claim related to the claim of $ 2 million by imposing a  ban on actions that, again, do not relate to the possible restart of  the "Teghut mining complex", Vallex Group comments.  In response to  the statements made, Vallex Group reports that it does not require  money from Teghut. "In September 2018, when VTB Bank became the owner  of Teghout shares and dismissed the general director, the balance in  Teghut settlement accounts was about $ 3.5 million, and the fact that  the new management of Teghut "did not in a timely manner fulfilled  the obligation of only 2 million drams or $ 4 thousand, thus  preventing the aggravation of the situation," Vallex Group notes.

Vallex Group was established in 1998 and unites 20 subsidiary and  affiliated companies. Among them is Teghut CJSC, founded in May 2006,  100% of the shares of CJSC belong to Teghut Investments Limited of  Cyprus, 100% of whose voting shares in turn belong to Armenian Copper  Program CJSC, which is fully owned by Valery Mejlumyan, and also CJSC  "Base Metals", operating the copper-gold deposit in the village of  Drmbon, Martakert region, NKR, Armenian Copper Program CJSC (ACP),  operating the Alaverdi Copper Smelter.  The program for the  exploitation of the Teghut copper-molybdenum deposit was approved by  the Armenian government in November 2007. In terms of reserves, the  Tekhut deposit is the second in the republic after the Kajaran copper  and molybdenum deposits in Syunik. Back in 1972, large-scale  geological exploration was carried out, which resulted in confirmed  reserves of 450 million tons of ore with a content of 1.6 million  tons of copper and 99 thousand tons of molybdenum. The suspension of  the largest Teghout project due to environmental problems at the end  of last year had a negative impact on the country's economy. The  operation of the field can be continued only after solving a number  of technical and environmental problems, due to which the company, in  fact, lost its credit support. Meanwhile, due to a serious violation  of environmental regulations, since October 19, 2018, the work of the  Alaverdi Copper Smelter, producing blister copper using technologies  from the middle of the last century, was suspended. The problem is  compounded by the fact that the property complex of the enterprise is  in collateral for a loan of $ 500 million, previously obtained from  VTB Bank for the development of the Teghut copper-molybdenum deposit.  Under these conditions, servicing a VTB loan becomes extremely  unaffordable for an enterprise and a serious decline in the level of  profitability of the Alaverdi plant, in fact, may lead to its  bankruptcy.  Meanwhile, on November 21, 2018, answering the question  of ArmInfo, Garegin Baghramyan, acting Minister of Energy  Infrastructures and Natural Resources of Armenia, stated that the  issue of appointing a new operator for the operation of the Teghut  copper-molybdenum deposit is being discussed. According to  Baghramyan, the Teghout mining project was mortgaged under a loan  from VTB Bank. "Today Teghut's assets have become the property of VTB  and the process is underway to appoint a new field operator from the  bank," the acting Head of the Ministry of Energy said. At the same  time, as Bagramyan noted, he is not yet aware of the candidates who  have expressed interest in the project.