By 2015 Vallex Group to considerably increase ore mining and processing

• Wednesday, June 27, 02:36

 Within the next four years Vallex Group, which is engaged in blister copper production, is going to start ore mining in Armenia and considerably increase the mining in Nagorno-Karabakh. In the meantime, the copper-in-concentrate output will exceed 37 thsd tons per annum, President of Vallex Group Valery
Mejlumyan told journalists. 

Vallex Group's program envisages increasing the ore mining and processing to 8900 thsd tons in 2012. Ore mining will be increased to 450 thsd tons in 2013, and to 2300 thsd tons in 2014.  Mejlumyan pointed out that the biggest mining output (7000 thsd tons) in 2015 will be ensured by Teghut CJSC established to develop the Teghut copper-molybdenum deposit. The development of the deposit will be launched in 2014.

One of the companies of Vallex Group - Base Metals CJSC - will extract 1900 thsd tons in Nagorno-Karabakh in 2015. Mejlumyan connects the mining growth in Karabakh with the development of the new Kashen copper-molybdenum deposit in Martakert region of Karabakh near Tsaghkashen village. In 2014 it is envisaged to build a concentrating plant near the deposit.  The plant will have a capacity of 2 mln tons of ore per annum. 1.75 mln tons of ore will be annually extracted and processed. Copper content is 0.6% per ton.

The company says that in 2013 the concentrate production by Vallex Group will total 14 thsd tons, in 2014 - 39 thsd tons, and in 2015 - 120 thsd tons. In 2015 the share of Teghut CJSC will be 82 thsd tons of concentrate, the share of Base Metals - 38 thsd tons. In 2012 the production of copper concentrate will be 2.2 thsd tons, in 2013 - 3 thsd tons, in 2014 - 11.3 thsd tons and in 2015 - 37.2 thsd tons. In the mean time, in 2015 Teghut CJSC will produce 26 thsd tons of copper-in-concentrate, and Base Metals - 11.2 thsd tons.

He said that a satisfactory raw material base may be created in Armenia in 3-4 years for the building of the copper plant. The idea of this project was born in 2000 in the company.  He also added that the project on building of the copper plant in Armenia may be economically justified only in case of
productivity from 80 thsd tons of cooper per year. "We shall produce about 37 thsd tons of copper in 2015, and if another 30 thsd tons of copper are produced in Armenia, in that case we shall have such an amount of copper which has never been produced over the years of independence of Armenia, and this will be enough for the building of a copper-smelting complex", - Mejlumyan said. He is confident that all the needed concentrate for the copper-smelting plant should  be mined in Armenia, as to import raw material to Armenia and to produce something from it is very much expensive and economically unprofitable.

He said that Europeans produce 1 mln tons of brass-ware per year and purchase about 3.5 mln tons of copper concentrate  or 850 thsd tons of copper for their production. At present, "Valex" group of companies has been producing and exporting blister copper without purification. The share of pure copper in the blister copper is 99.2%, the rest is gold and silver. Mejlumyan said that the blister copper exported by the company is twofold expensive
than the refined one because of the share of gold and silver in it. He also added it is more simply to sold blister copper than the brass-ware produced from it after deeper processing, such as: copper wire, plate and cable. However, brass-ware production creates added value, he said. In the copper plant building project he did not rule out the possibility of setting up an alliance with any world copper producer, for instance, the German "Aurubis" or Zangezur copper and molybdenum plant which has been exploiting the Kajaran copper and molybdenum deposit.

To note, more than a dozen of companies enter the "Valex" group, among them: CJSC "ACP", CJSC "Base Metals", CJSC "Tekhut", CJSC "Lernametalurgiai institute", "Valex Mining" Ltd and "Valex IT" Ltd.