The upcoming opening of regional transport infrastructure will create new opportunities for Armenia in the mining sector, Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan said at the Armenian Mining Forum, which kicked off in Tsaghkadzor.
"Mining is a knowledge-based sector because efficient mining requires highly qualified specialists—not just in one, but in many different fields," Pashinyan said.
"I mean that mining is a locomotive for education, and also for the economy, because in order to operate a mine, many other economic operators are involved, and various other forms of activity are developed. I just want us to pay attention to the fact that mining provides significant career opportunities for people within Armenia, and the higher we raise the standards of our mining industry, the more the number of highly qualified specialists will grow," he said, also emphasizing that there is demand for labor in the sector as well.
Pashinyan also stressed the importance of initiating dialogue and discussions around the mining sector, taking into account the inevitable progress of technologies.
"The conversation should focus on what needs to be done to ensure that mining in our country meets higher standards—even when it comes to the amount of metal extracted per unit of ore," the Prime Minister said.
He also described it as a major problem that Armenia is currently forced to export raw ore, and expressed the opinion that the sector should be developed in a way that maximizes the ore processing chain and brings it as close as possible to final products.
"That would mean additional jobs, additional revenues for the state budget, increased demand for highly qualified specialists, additional investments in the economy and education sectors, and a new level of well-being," he said.
"I hope that upcoming developments, including regional ones, will create a more favorable environment in this regard, because the peace established between Armenia and Azerbaijan and the anticipated opening of regional transport infrastructure—which will definitely happen in the near future—will open up new opportunities for us in this sector," he said, adding that serious thought must be given to what needs to be done to make the agreement on establishing an efficient copper smelter in Armenia a reality.
"But even that is not the end of the chain, because if we are already producing ingots or metals, we should think about further extending the chain so that copper products or products where copper is widely used can also be manufactured in Armenia. There should be industrial platforms and investments of that kind as well. The same applies to gold. And that too is a matter of great importance," he added.
