South Caucasus railway company pledges to invest 530 million rubles in upgrading Ararat- Sotk railroad

YEREVAN, March 1, /ARKA /. The South Caucasus Railway company has pledged today to invest 530 million Russian rubles in upgrading a railroad from the town of Ararat in the same name province to Sotk gold mines in Gegharkunik province. Speaking at the inauguration of electrical centralization module at Daralik railway station in Ararat Shevket Shaidulin, the company’s s CEO, said the investment will be made within the next three years to modernize all stations on the railroad.

Shaidulin said the modernized Daralik station will enable to increase the capacity of the road in the direction of Sotk gold mines in line with an agreement signed with GeoProMining company.

Roman Khudoliy, GeoProMining president, praised the South Caucasus Railway company for its efforts to upgrade the system. He explained that under an agreement with the South Caucasus Railway сompany GeoProMining is to double production volumes and consequently the volume of ore transported from Sotk to Ararat gold extraction plant by railway.

GeoProMining is a privately owned company specialized in mining and processing of metalliferous ores (copper, molybdenum, antimony) and precious metals (gold, silver). The Group has a diversified production structure and markets. Deposits and processing plants of the Group are in Russia, Armenia, Georgia and Vietnam. Its major assets in Armenia are GPM GOLD and Agarak coper-molybdenum combine.

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 M.M. -0-