South Caucasus Railway and Meghradzor Gold looking for ways to enhance cooperation

YEREVAN, March 11. / ARKA /. The South Caucuses Railway (SCR), a Russian-run company operating Armenia’s railroads and Meghradzor Gold, a gold mining company are looking for ways to enhance cooperation, SCR said in a press release.

It said a delegation of SCR, led by Robert Yepremian, head of a SCR department, visited the village of Meghradzor in central Kotayk province for a closer look into the process of mining and ore transportation.

The sides were said to have discussed a number of issues of mutual interest with the focus on those related to the loading and unloading of cars with ore and agreed to reduce the idle time of cars at Ararat station before the cars enter the gold recovery plant there. 

According to the executive director of Meghradzor Gold, Hovhannes Hayrapetyan, currently the gold ore is being extracted 300 meters below the ground. The distance from the entrance to the work site is 4.5 km. Miners are taken there by a passenger van; the road takes 30-35 minutes.

The Meghradzor mine has been developed since 1985. In 2006 its operation was suspended. At the end of 2011, Meghradzor Gold resumed transportation of ore to the gold recovery factory in Ararat and now is one of the largest partners of SCR in domestic transportation. Meghradzor Gold employs 165 people, 116 of them are residents of the village.

The South Caucasus Railways is run by Russian Railways. The concessional agreement was concluded in 2008 for 30 years, with a right of extension for another 20 years after the first 20 years of operation. -0-