HIGH QUALITY GOLD EXPORTED FROM ARMENIA

[MosJan]

HIGH QUALITY GOLD EXPORTED FROM ARMENIA

 

The road from capital Yerevan to Sodk Gold Mines, located in Vardenis region near the border with Azerbaijan, we passed in four hours. Several sections of this 160-km long road seem practically impassable. The unfolding view is not attractive either with land plots with no trees, occasional semi-destroyed buildings, agricultural equipment. The only sight that catches the traveler’s eye is the Lake Sevan that is equally beautiful in every weather. When we reached destination, we were welcomed, besides chief executives of the Sodk Gold Mines, by also a wind that was chilling to the marrow.

 

Before the mines’ director Artavazd Movsisian had told us the latest update of the news about the mines that resumed operations several months ago, we headed for the so-called “experimental mine,” where huge trucks were transporting earth until the drift miners reach the mines themselves. The drivers of the trucks said they get $160 a month for their heavy work, but none of them seemed to be discontent with that disproportion. The Sodk Gold Mines resumed operation last December.

 

Back to the administration building of the mines we were told and shown all the stages of how gold ore is extracted and then processed. Fifty percent of shares in Armgold company were obtained in 1998 by a Canadian FDM company, which made the first investments by constructing a gold ore processing plant in Ararat. But last year the majority of FDM shares were bought by a London-based Indian company. The Indian company purchased the rest of shares in Armgold.

 

The mines’ director said some 200 jobs were opened in this period of time with an average wage of $150. This number is expected to double and even triple if the so-called closed mines are started to be exploited. The director said the ore is transported to Ararat, some 200 km off Sodk, increasing by 50 percent all expenses. According to him, it would be more expedient to build an ore processing plant in Sodk. In 2003-2004 the company plans to process up to 1 million tons of ore and each ton yields from 4 to 5 grams of most high quality gold.

 

By Ara Martirosian

 

 

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