Interfax: Armenia sells copper mine to Swiss co. for $1.2 mln

YEREVAN. Nov 25 (Interfax) – The Armenian government has sold the Kapan copper mining and concentrating plant to a Swiss company for $1.25 million.

The buyer has pledged to settle debts to the state and wage arrears totaling $9 million, an official at the Russian Ministry of Economic Development and Trade told Interfax.

The mine is 300 km southeast of Yerevan and works the Central copper and Shaumian gold-polymetal deposits.

Kapan has the capacity to produce 340,000 tonnes of copper concentrate annually. The complex process about 1 million tonnes of ore from the central deposit and 300,000 tonnes from the Shaumian deposit every year.