168 Zham, Armenia
Feb 1 2007
AUTHORITIES TO FORCE SALE OF GOLD MINE TO RUSSIANS
According to our information, the Armenian authorities are forcing
Vedanta Resources to sell the Ararat Gold-Mining Plant [AGMP] to the
Russians. Several days ago, the Armenian and Russian presidents,
Robert Kocharyan and Vladimir Putin, said in Sochi that Russia is
going to make investments in the mining sphere.
This information has been circulating at the AGMP for a month
already. The leaders of the company are even advising their workers
to find new jobs. The children of the Indian managers at the plant
have told their teachers at the Ashtarak school that they will stop
attending lessons as their families are going to leave Armenia.
The director of AGMP, Vardan Vardanyan, told us that he does not have
any information about this. But the intentions of the Armenian
authorities are already being outlined. Let us recall that the
Ecology Ministry last year audited the AGMP and twice found large
stocks of [unreported] gold. The plant appealed against those acts,
and at present the plant and Ecology Ministry are engaged in
litigation.
Let us also recall that there is a lot of gold at the Sodk deposit:
eight grams per tonne. And the Indian owners were to mine about 50
tonnes of gold over the next 12 years. Gold prices are rising on the
world market.