Mineral industry of Armenia

Armenia's largest mine, the Kajaran copper-molybdenum open-pit mine in southern Armenia is operated by the Zangezur Copper and Molybdenum Combine, and until 2018, was 75% owned by the German CRONIMET company
The Teghut Mine (opened in December 2014) contains a copper and molybdenum deposit valued at over US$15 billion and has destroyed over 350 acres of Armenia's little-remaining forested land. The operator of the mine, Vallex Group, will pay only about 10% of revenues in taxes.

The mineral industry is one of the main sectors of the Armenian economy and in 2017 accounted for 30.1% of its exports.[1]

Armenia is a major producer of molybdenum, which is used in some high-quality forms of steel, and other alloys. The Zangezur copper-molybdenum complex possesses large molybdenum reserves that are concentrated in the Kajaran deposit. Besides molybdenum, Armenia has significant deposits of copper and gold; smaller deposits of lead, silver, and zinc; and deposits of industrial minerals, including basalt, diatomite, granite, gypsum, limestone, and perlite.[2]

  1. ^ Cite error: The named reference :0 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  2. ^ Richard M. Levine and Glenn J. Wallace. "The Mineral Industries of the Commonwealth of Independent States". 2005 Minerals Yearbook. U.S. Geological Survey (December 2007). This article incorporates text from this U.S. government source, which is in the public domain.