U.S. Firm to Mine Uranium In Armenia

27/01/2006
BAku Today
Source: Radio Free Europe

The Connecticut-based Global Gold Corporation (GGC) said late Wednesday it has acquired a vast plot of land in the northeastern Gegharkunik region which geologists believe is rich in uranium and gold ores. The company is understood to be primarily interested in local deposits of the radioactive metal used as nuclear fuel.
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The area was extensively explored by Soviet mining experts in the 1970s. “These studies concluded that the region is prospective for radioactive elements, including uranium,” GGC said in a statement. “A suite of radioactive minerals were reported in the samples, including uraninite (uranium oxide),” it added.

GGC sources in Yerevan told RFE/RL Thursday that the U.S. company will conduct further exploration to ascertain the local uranium and gold reserves before starting to mine -- a process that will take up to three years. They said the uranium ore will likely be processed in Armenia and smelted in Europe or the United States.

Armenia was a major center of non-ferrous metallurgy in the former Soviet Union and still exports copper and gold in large quantities. But its uranium reserves have not been developed so far.
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