GeoProMining Gold LLC, which operates the Sotk gold mine on the new Armenian-Azerbaijani border, plans to expand production at the Ararat Gold Recovery Plant located several miles south of Yerevan.

The company has filed its Environmental Impact Assessment with the Ministry of the Environment.

The Ararat Gold Mining Plant currently processes 1 million tons of ore a year. The new project envisages increasing productivity to 1.750 million tons due to the reconstruction of some parts of the plant.

The plant’s 165-hectare tailings dam, 5.8 kilometers away, will also have to increase in size.

Until the dump’s current capacity is depleted, the company will calculate the stability of the existing tailings dam, which will allow a final decision to be made whether to increase the existing tailings by raising the walls of the exisiting dam or to build a new storage dam nearby.

If the project is implemented, the company says 55 new jobs will be created.

Tailings dam photo by Saro Baghdasaryan