YEREVAN, OCTOBER 9, NOYAN TAPAN. Although it was envisaged to make investments of 157 mln USD in the Zangezur Copper and Molybdenum Enterprise (ZCME), another 60 mln USD will be invested in the enterprise in 2007 in addition to investments of 130 mln USD in 2005-2006, Artur Asdhughian, the head of the Nature Use Economy and Mining Industry Department of the RA Ministry of Trade and Economic Development, said at the October 9 press conference. In his words, the enterprise has continued to operate in parallel with large-scale modernization work. He noted that because of this work, the production declined by the forecast 3-4% in the first half of this year as compared with the same period of 2006. At present they have approached last year's index and may even exceed the 2006 index by results of 2007. The department head said that thanks to modernization, a new factory with the annual 11 million-ton capacity of processing copper and molybdenum ore has been created at ZCPE, and construction of a new workshop has begun, after completion of which the enterprise's ore processing capacities will reach 15 million tons a year. According to A. Ashughian, the first stage of the ZCME's investment program will finish in 2008, as a result of which ore processing capacities of 12.5 mln tons a year will be created at the enterprise, while at the end of the program, these capacities will make 15-17 mln tons a year. He added that in 2006, 10.4 mln tons of ore was processed at ZCME. The department head stated that in addition to the indicated sums, some investments will be made in ZCME for creation of a new foundry in the form of a "module plant", which allows to increase casting capacities stage by stage.

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