Friday, December 12 2014

 In Jan-Sept 2014, Zangezur Copper Molybdenum Combine, the largest mining company in Armenia, extracted 16,462 mln tons of ore against 16,049 mln in Jan-Sept 2013 (up 2.57%), Samvel Mkrtchyan, Head of the State Commission on Mineral Resources, Armenian Ministry of Energy and Natural Resources, has told ArmInfo. 

In the meantime, the company's commercial output amounted to 102.2 bln AMD, 0.89% less than in Jan-Sept 2013, he says. Mkrtchyan explains the decline in the commercial output by the drop in world prices of metals. The royalty paid dropped by 54.12% to 5,375 bln AMD. Mkrtchyan says that the royalty is paid from the sales and the company may have extracted ore but there may have been no sales. In addition, the royalty is paid as an advance payment and part of the payments for the previous year will be made next year. This is what explains the reduction, he says. 

In November Narek Hambaryan, First Deputy Director General of Zangezur Copper Molybdenum Combine, said that in 2014 the company is going to increase the ore output and processing to 18.7 mln tons versus 18.1 mln tons in 2013. In 2015 the Combine is planning to process 20 mln tons, and in 2016 - 22 mln tons. 
The shareholders of Zangezur Copper Molybdenum Combine are Cronimet Њining (60%), Pure Iron 15%, Armenian Molybdenum Production (12.5%) and Zangezur Mining (12.5%).
Zangezur Copper Molybdenum Combine is developing the Kajaran deposit, which is the richest in copper throughout the CIS. The Combine was privatized on 14 December 2004 for 132 mln USD.