The Minister of Economic Development and Investments of RA Suren Karayan visited Teghout Mining Complex to get introduced to the activities, programs and problems of the mining complex.

Delegation headed by the Minister visited the mining complex, repair and maintenance of mineral machinery and equipment, processing plant, etc.

The Chairman of Vallex Group Companies Valeri Mejlumyan represented the activity of mining complex mentioning that the total amount of investments exceeded 400 million USD. In general, the investments of group companies in Armenia and Artsakh over the past 20 years were about 700 million USD. According to Valeri Mejlumyan, Teghut company has 1150 workers, modern processing plant, most modern equipment in the mining industry, etc.

Minister Karayan also visited Alaverdi copper smelter. The representatives of the company mentioned that the company has 600 workers. Now the production capacities allow to recycle up to 50 thousand tons of copper concentrate annually and produce about 13 thousand tons of black copper.

The session of the working group established by the instruction of the Prime Minister of RA took place. The Group is responsible for the support to the Armenian Copper Program CJSC for the construction of a new copper smelter. The group is composed of the Deputy Ministers of Economic Development and Investments, Finance, Energy Infrastructures and Natural Resources, Nature Protection. The Head of the working group Tigran Khachatryan mentioned that without significant investments and compliance with modern environmental requirements, long-term activities cannot be achieved. According to the Deputy Minister, at present all possible options available in world practice are being discussed with potential partners, creating a stable production in Armenia which will not be problematic in the long-term environmental perspective.