Type Open pit Opened 2014 | ||
 | ||
Production 1.6 million tons of copper100,000 tons of molybdenum Company Vallex Group (via Armenian Copper Programme) | ||
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. The mine will be comparable in size to the Kajaran Mine in southern Armenia.
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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. 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. It has borrowed the bulk of that money from VTB, a leading Russian bank.
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.
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. The company has said that it plans to manufacture $182 million worth of non-ferrous ore concentrates there already in 2015.
Environmental impact
Open-pit mining at Teghut will lead to the destruction of 357 hectares of rich forest, including 128,000 trees. Environmentalists claim that ore crushing and enrichment will also pollute a local river and underground waters.