TEGHUT TO BE EXPLOITED 25 YEARS; 357 HECTARES OF FOREST TO BE REMOVED

Panorama.am
20:00 01/11/2007

The mining area of Teghut was granted to "Armenia Copper" organization,
which was given a 25-year exploitation right. Today the government
decided to give the corresponding license to the organization.

At an interview following the government session, the minister of
financial development and trade, Nerses Yeritsyan, said that the
organization is obligated to invest 200 million dollars, and that
it has already invested 50 million dollars in preparation work. The
minister, presenting the signed contract, said the organization is
obligated to create 1,700 jobs, of which 1,450 must be in the first
stage of operation.

During the first year, seven million tons of production and refinement
are expected, in the end reaching 30 thousand tons of copper, as
opposed to the current 20 thousand tons. The mining of copper should
produce a yearly income of 100 million dollars. "The course of their
work will show if the license will be given to another organization,
or not," the minister said. "The organization has the right to sell
the license to someone else," he added.

Speaking about the question of nature preservation, Yeritsyan said
that studies showed that the income to be received outweighs expenses
foreseen for nature protection. We note that 357 hectares of forest
are planned to be removed. "Those won’t be removed all at once, but
at the rate of 12 hectares a year, which is small compared to what is
removed in Armenia today," he said. He added that without exploitation
and removal of trees, natural deterioration would occur anyway.

In Yeritsyan’s words, plans are in the works to replant deforested
areas, and that after the exploitation period is over, a resort area
and large green area is foreseen. Taxes of around 200 million dollars
are expected to be collected from the mining organization.