Teghut Mine

Teghut Mine

Open-pit mining at Teghut (summer 2014)
Location
Teghut Mine
Location in Armenia
Location Teghut
Province Lori
Country Armenia
Coordinates 41°05′17″N 44°50′47″E / 41.088087°N 44.846274°E / 41.088087; 44.846274Coordinates: 41°05′17″N 44°50′47″E / 41.088087°N 44.846274°E / 41.088087; 44.846274
Production
Products Copper, molybdenum
Production 1.6 million tons of copper
100,000 tons of molybdenum
Type Open pit
History
Opened 2014 (2014)
Owner
Company Vallex Group (via Armenian Copper Programme)
Website www.teghout.am
Year of acquisition 2001

Teghut Mine is a major copper and molybdenum open-pit mine in Armenia's northern province of Lori in the village of Teghut with deposits valued at $15.5 billion USD (in 2010). In December 2014, Vallex Group launched production operations at the mine, which is a $380 million USD project.[1] The mine will be comparable in size to the Kajaran Mine in southern Armenia.

Available deposits and value

The Teghut forest lies atop ore deposits containing an estimated 1.6 million tons of copper and about 100,000 tons of molybdenum.[1] In 2010, with the price of copper at $7,500 USD per ton and molybdenum at $35,000 USD per ton, this amounts to about $12 billion USD in copper and $3.5 billion USD in molybdenum. Therefore, the total value of the mine's deposits was about $15.5 billion in 2010.

Mine financing and ownership

Vallex, which is run and at least partly owned by Russian-Armenian businessman Valeri Mejlumyan, claims to have already invested almost $340 million in Teghut.[1] It has borrowed the bulk of that money from VTB, a leading Russian bank.[1]

In 2013, the company also attracted $62 million in funding from a Danish pension fund which was due to be partly or fully channeled into purchases of metallurgical equipment.[1]

Mine operations

Vallex claims to have created about 1,300 new jobs and has pledged to build new schools and upgrade infrastructure in nearby villages.[1] The company has said that it plans to manufacture $182 million worth of non-ferrous ore concentrates there already in 2015.[1]

Environmental impact

Open-pit mining at Teghut will lead to the destruction of 357 hectares of rich forest, including 128,000 trees.[1] Environmentalists claim that ore crushing and enrichment will also pollute a local river and underground waters.[1]

Panoramas from September 2013

Teghut Valley and Mine. Visible are the location of the open pit mine and the ore processing facility under construction.
Western area: Teghut village and mine.
Eastern area: Teghut mine and forest
Panorama from main road a few kilometers up from the main entrance. The ore processing facility can be seen under construction on top of the hill, behind which is the tailing dump.
Panorama from main road a few kilometers up from the main entrance. The tailing dump is located behind the hill in the foreground.
Ore processing facility under construction

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 Danielyan, Emil (2014-12-22). "New Armenian Mining Giant Inaugurated". Azatutyun Radiokayan (RFE/RL). Yerevan. Retrieved 2015-08-30.

See also

This article is issued from Wikipedia - version of the 12/5/2016. The text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share Alike but additional terms may apply for the media files.