A new initiative will be launched by "Let's Save Teghut Forest" environmental group.

On January 15, a new initiative will be launched by "Let's Save Teghut Forest" environmental group, with the intention of reversing a government order to allow further mining exploitation. 

It has been more than four years - since November 2007 - that environmentalists have tried to stop the development of further copper and molybdenum processing near the village of Teghut in the Lori province, where even villagers who are employed by the Armenian Copper Program (ACP) Company have opposed further expansion. The Teghut and Shnogh villages of the Lori province are some four-six kilometers far from the mine; the population of Teghut is 976 people, of Shnogh is 3,139 people. 

Gor Hakobyan, leader of the action group says a group of protesters will travel to Teghut on Sunday to present new objections to construction of a tailings depot that would consume about 357 hectares of forest. The blasting phase of open-pit mining is expected to begin in mid-spring.

On January 15, in the morning, participants of the initiative by buses will leave for Vanadzor, the Lori provincial center, where they will be joined by local activists. A short updating event will take place there, after which they will continue their journey to Teghut, where they will hold an action of protest walking about four kilometers. Hakobyan says that the new program of Teghut protection will be presented only on the day of their hiking tour. 

One of the members of the Teghut Defense Group Mariam Sukhudyan informed that  71 hectares have already been destroyed. 

But there are still thousands of hectares planned to be destroyed. This ill-fated project will not only lead to the loss of forests, but also will result in 500 tons of wastes to be thrown into the valley which will be a bomb for the current and future generations. 

Eighty one percent of the company’s shares belong to the Liechtenstein-registered Valex F.M. Establishment Company, and 19 percent to Russia-based entrepreneur, ACP general director Valery Mejlumyan. 

Mejlumyan said that more than $350 million will be invested in the construction project of Ore Processing Combine in Teghut and Teghut Copper and Molybdenum Mine development. The company has already invested more than $100 million in the construction works.

“The remaining $250 million will be drawn in the upcoming two years. In fact, in two years the Ore Processing Combine in Teghut will start running and it will produce about 28,000 tons of copper concentrate annually,” Mejlumyan said.

Currently about 23,000 tons of copper concentrate is produced in Armenia, a great part of which is produced by Zangezur Copper Molybdenum Plant in Kajaran, Syunik province. After the development of Teghut mine, more than 50,000 tons of copper concentrate will be produced in Armenia annually.