Friday, June 28 2019 20:18

ArmInfo. After restarting the processing plant Teghout and entering the planned production volumes, the company plans to increase the staff to 1,000 people, and therefore now actively selects specialists with relevant professional education, qualifications and experience. This is stated in the official communication of the company.

As of June 28, the company has 711 employees, of which 317 (45%) are residents of the enlarged Shnogh community (including 113 live in Teghut, 191 in Shnogh and 13 in Karkop), 205 from Alaverdi and 189 - from other communities.

According to the source, on March 29, 2019, a new leadership was appointed at ZAO Teghut in order to conduct large-scale preparatory work and further normal operation of the processing plant. The message also says that on May 4, during the meeting of Karen Ghazaryan, Executive Director of Teghut, with the elders and residents of Shnogh, an agreement was reached, according to which the company, given appropriate qualifications and experience in the staff selection process, will give priority to the population of Shnogh's enlarged community which also includes the Teghout and Karkop communities.  According to a written assessment of the stability of the Teghut JSC tailing dump, received from expert organizations operating in Armenia, all the seismic and hydraulic structures of the company are designed in accordance with the standards in force in Armenia. In the case of the introduction of a new development will be given a certain period for the revision of safety standards and align with the new standards of hydraulic structures owned by JSC "Teghut".

"Nevertheless, the management of JSC Teghut invited an authoritative foreign expert organization to study the stability of the tailing dump in order to be completely sure that there is no long-term risk of operating the tailing dump," the report says.

In addition, the company implements social projects. In particular, during May 2019, Teghut assisted the regional administration of Shnogh in the implementation of a program for providing street lighting. As part of another social program, a monetary reward was paid to the veteran of the Great Patriotic War, and wreaths were laid at the monument to the heroes of the Great Patriotic War. At the same time, the company provided material assistance to 3 schools (in Shnogh, Tekhut, and Karkop) for organizing excursions for students, as well as monetary awards to graduates and teachers of these schools. JSC Teghut also presented the House of Shnogh culture with tables and chairs in the necessary quantity for organizing and holding the festive event on June 1, dedicated to the Children's Day.

During June, the company donated computer equipment to three schools of the enlarged Shnogh community, as well as Shnogh and Teghut kindergarten, Teghut House of Culture, art school, Shnogh chess club and the regional administration of the community to improve the efficiency of the educational and labor process.

"After a large-scale restart of the company, it is planned to continue socially oriented activities, as well as to develop new social assistance programs in close cooperation with the administrations of the communities. The immediate plans include the implementation of the project for the overhaul and operation of the currently inactive kindergarten in the village of Karkop of the Shnogh community, the source says.  Earlier ArmInfo, citing RA Minister of Economy Tigran Khachatryan, reported that preparatory work is underway to restart the Teghut deposit. Nevertheless, on May 30, in an interview with journalists, the Minister abstained from indicating possible dates for the resumption of work at the field. He estimated the damage to the country's economy from the mine's downtime in the amount of $ 120 million. "In 2017, Teghout exported products for about $ 120 million per year. The negative effect on the Armenian economy in 2018 is exactly as estimated," he said.

Recall that on March 28 of this year. in the country's parliament, Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan said that there are real shifts in the matter of resuming the operation of the Teghut field. According to him, the company's management (Vallex Group, which develops the field - Ed.) Is already returning people to jobs.  Nikol Pashinyan expressed hope that the enterprise will resume work in the near future.  Nevertheless, information about the sale of the Tekhut mine to a different, de facto, Russian investor passed through the market, since the Valeks group found itself in a difficult financial situation due to the shutdown of two large industrial assets - the Tekhut mine in early 2018 and Alaverdi of the copper smelter at the end of 2018. In both cases, the assets "freeze" was associated with problems with environmental safety. The mine needed additional work to strengthen the dam and the tailing dump, which did not correspond to the international mill dartame

According to some data, the Teghut deposit, transferred at the beginning of the current year as a collateral to VTB Bank, which passed a $ 380 million pass on the project, was alienated or transferred by the bank to the Russian Copper Company, one of whose shareholders is Russian businessman Norayr Petrosyan.  The program for the exploitation of the Teghut copper-molybdenum deposit was approved by the Armenian government in November 2007. In terms of reserves, the Tekhut deposit is the second in the republic after the Kajaran copper and molybdenum deposits in Syunik. Back in 1972, large-scale geological exploration was carried out, which resulted in confirmed reserves of 450 million tons of ore with a content of 1.6 million tons of copper and 99 thousand tons of molybdenum. The project due to environmental problems in February 2018 was suspended.  The operation of the field can be continued only after a number of technical and environmental measures, the absence of which has deprived the company of credit support.