YEREVAN. - The companies which control mines in Armenia will have to themselves extract useful minerals from the cultivated soil.

Deputy Minister of Energy and Natural Resources of Armenia, Vardan Gevorgyan, said the aforementioned in the parliament on Tuesday, introducing the draft amendments to the Code of Mineral Resources.

According to the draft, the tailing dumps will no longer be considered man-made mines. To put it otherwise, the company will not be able to leave the tailings for someone else to process them. The companies should themselves wash the minerals for the second time, extract materials and pay royalties for them as in case of  primary extraction from the mine.   

And the application for the geological research or extraction of minerals should mention the waste processing plan and provide financial guarantees for this work.

The new requirements will also extend over operating mines, which will be given five years for preparation.