Surik Khachatryan May Lose Rights to Gold-Multimetallic Mine in Voskedzor

According to Hetq, Surik Khachatryan, the former governor of Syunik, may lose the rights to exploit the gold-multimetallic mine in Voskedzor, owned 100% by his company Geghi Gold LLC. Under a contract signed on July 22, 2016, Geghi Gold LLC was granted temporary control and use of the Voskedzor mine for a period of 29.4 years. The mine was to produce 18,032 kg of gold, 219,453 tons of silver, 16,170 tons of copper, and 78,627 tons of zinc from the first zone, as well as an additional 7,062 kg of gold, 106,397 tons of silver, 5,538 tons of copper, and 54,258 tons of zinc from the second zone. However, over these years, Surik Khachatryan has not operated the mine.

On June 14, 2022, the Minister of Territorial Administration and Infrastructure Gnel Sanosyan sent a warning to the director of Geghi Gold LLC, stating that according to information available to the ministry, extraction works have not been carried out by the company in the mine.

“We inform you that if the company does not rectify the violations indicated in this warning within a 90-day period and does not submit the necessary documents to the authorized body, the Ministry of Territorial Administration and Infrastructure will initiate and carry out administrative proceedings in accordance with the procedure established by the Law of the Republic of Armenia on the Fundamentals of Administrative Actions and Administrative Procedures, as a result of which, in the presence of any of the grounds stipulated in point 3 of the third part of Article 30 of the Code, the company’s mining rights may be terminated,” stated Minister Gnel Sanosyan in the warning.

The director of Geghi Gold responded on July 21, indicating that “the lack of extraction works by the company for a certain period was due to the situation created in the country, particularly the state of emergency declared due to the emergency situation in 2020, the quarantine imposed due to the coronavirus infection, and the declared martial law. As a result of the situation, and considering the location of the mine (Syunik province), the company has also found itself in a financial difficult situation due to the lack of investments.”

“Due to the above circumstances, the company, independent of its will, in the presence of force majeure, has been unable to fully fulfill the obligations specified in the contract,” the director of Geghi Gold stated.

At the same time, the director promised that the company will completely fulfill its obligations stipulated by the law and the mining exploitation contract and requested that a maximum reasonable period be granted for implementation.

It appears that the Ministry did not respond to this letter from the company. Geghi Gold has appealed to the Administrative Court, claiming that since no administrative act was received within the legal deadline, it must be considered accepted based on the request submitted to the Ministry on 21.07.2022.

However, the court, after examining and evaluating the aforementioned letter, noted that it does not constitute an appropriate application for extending the mining exploitation term, as it is not clear from its requirements that the applicant was specifically seeking to extend the mining exploitation term. Furthermore, the mandatory documents legally required to consider an extension request were not attached to the application. In such circumstances, the court concluded that the administrative body could not regard the letter as a properly submitted application and could therefore not initiate administrative proceedings to extend the mining exploitation term. Consequently, the company’s claim was rejected by Judge Varazdat Mikayelyan.

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