GLOBAL GOLD CORP BUYS GOLD PRODUCER IN ARMENIA
08/25/05 16:00 ET
YEREVAN, Aug 25 (Reuters) – Global Gold Corp <GBGD.OB> <GBGD.OB> has
bought gold producing plant Tukhmanuk in central Armenia for $3.5
million from the Armenian company Mego Gold, a company official said
on Thursday.
“We have already transferred $1.5 million for a 51 percent stake and
will pay off the rest within two years,” Ashot Boghossian, the head
of the Global Gold office in Armenia, told Reuters.
He said the company had already got a licence for exploration works.
It planned to start works at the Tukhmanuk mining site soon and
invest about $2 million there.
Boghossian added that Global Gold planned to operate the plant all
year round and boost the plant’s output to 500,000-700,000 tonnes of
ore annually, up from 200,000 tonnes now. The mine at present is
explored only in summer time.
One tonne of ore yields about six grammes of gold at Tukhmanuk mine.
Armenia, like many other gold-rich ex-Soviet states, has attracted
foreign investment since the communist collapse in 1991 due to
improving economic conditions.
The Armenian gold-mining unit of Canada’s Sterlite Gold <SGD.TO>,
Ararat Gold Recovery Company, runs two mines — Zod in eastern
Armenia, with gold content of 3-3.5 grammes per tonne, and Meghradzor
in the north, with gold content of five grammes per tonne.