Chairman of the RA Control Chamber Ishkhan Zakaryan has brought a number of accusations against GeoProMining Company, which is developing the Sotk and Meghradzor goldfields, as well as operating the Ararat Gold Recovery Factory.

According to Zakaryan, the company was licensed to develop the goldfields with violations of law. Moreover, the license agreements were signed on February 29, 2008, whereas the company has been developing the goldfields since 2004.

He referred to a number of violations of the contracts. Under the contact, the company pledged to extract 600,000 tons of ore annually from the Sotk field. However, the company extracted only 16,600 tons in 2007, 29,200 tons in 2008, and 320,500 in 2009. The company also pledged to extract 120,000 tons of ore at the Meghradzor field. However, the output totaled only 1,600 tons from 2007 to 2009.

The GeoProMining Gold Company also failed to honor its commitments to the Armenian budget. Under the contract, the company was to pay concessions, and its debt currently totals 24.1 million AMD (U.S. $67,000) – 15.3 million AMD (U.S. $42,000) for Sotk and 8.8 million AMD (U.S. $24.4) for Meghradzor.

GeoProMining deposited all its stock at the VTB Capital PLC in favor of a certain Carlow BV Company, which borrowed a U.S. $250 million loan from the bank this June.

He is also surprised at the fact that gold prices are constantly rising in international markets, whereas GeoProMining goes on operating in the red.