Prime Minister: There is no threat of collapse of the dam of the  Teghout deposit tailing dump

ArmInfo.There is no threat of collapse of the dam of the tailing dump of the Teghout  field. The Prime Minister of Armenia Nikol Pashinyan wrote about this  on his Facebook page, referring to the results of a detailed  inspection carried out by the inspection body at the Teghout field.

''At the end of July, information was spread that supposedly, the dam  of the tailings of the Teghout field is on the verge of destruction  and could collapse at any time. If these allegations were true, the  dam of the Teghout tailing dump should have collapsed as a result of  the earthquake that occurred the day before yesterday'', he said.

The head of government said that after this audit of the economic  entity operating the mine, a requirement was put forward - to conduct  an examination of the tailings dam and ensure its long-term safety.  "Under this condition, mine operation will continue, no matter that I  do nto like it, otherwise the work will be suspended," the prime  minister emphasized.

The prime minister recalled that these days the government was under  great pressure to stop the Teghout mine. If, as a result, the  authorities decided to stop the operation of the mine, then more than  900 people, according to Pashinyan, would be left without job again,  and Teghout would become a big problem, because there would not be a  single responsible subject to which requirements could be made to  ensure safety and environmental standards.

''And those who claimed that the Teghout mine would collapse will  bear any responsibility now? Of course not. Because they can claim  anything. If the government succumbed to pressure, would it bear any  responsibility? Of course, yes: at least for lowering the investment  rating of Armenia, for 940 people who turned out to be unemployed  because of this situation, for lowering tax collections and for  worsening economic indicators, "the prime minister concluded.

To recall, on March 28 this year in the country's parliament, Prime  Minister Nikol Pashinyan stated that there is real progress in the  issue of resuming the operation of the Teghout field. According to  him, the management of the company (Vallex Group, which is developing  the field - ed. note) is already re-employs people. Nikol Pashinyan  expressed hope that in the near future the enterprise will resume  work.  Nevertheless, information was spread on the market about the  sale of the Teghout mine to another, de facto, Russian investor,  since the Vallex Group was in a difficult financial situation due to  the shutdown of two large industrial assets - the Teghout mine in  early 2018 and the Alaverdi smelter at the end of 2018. In either  case, the "freezing" of assets was associated with environmental  safety problems. The mine needed additional work to strengthen the  dam and tailings that did not meet international standards.

According to some reports, the Teghout deposit, transferred at the  beginning of this year as collateral to VTB Bank, which financed the  project for $ 380 million, was alienated or transferred by the bank  to the management of the Russian Copper Company, one of the  shareholders of which is Russian businessman Norayr Petrosyan.

The operation program for the Teghout copper-molybdenum deposit was  approved by the Armenian government in November 2007. By reserves,  the Teghout deposit is the second in the republic after the Kajaran  copper and molybdenum deposit in Syunik. Back in 1972, large-scale  exploration work was carried out here, according to the results of  which reserves of 450 million tons of ore with a content of 1.6  million tons of copper and 99 thousand tons of molybdenum were  confirmed. Due to environmental issues, the project was suspended in  February 2018. Field development can only be continued after a series  of technical and environmental measures, the absence of which  deprived the company of credit support.  To note, Vallex Group CJSC  was established in 1998 and unites 20 subsidiary and affiliated  companies.  Among them, Teghout CJSC, founded in May 2006, 100% of  the shares are owned by the Cypriot Teghout Investments Limited, 100%  of the voting shares of which in turn are owned by Armenian Copper  Program CJSC, wholly owned by the group's president Valery Mejlumyan,  as well as CJSC "BaseMetals" operating a copper-gold deposit in the  village of Drmbon of the Martakert region of NKR, CJSC Armenian  Copper Program (ACP) operating an Alaverdi smelter producing crude  copper.