The mining sector should become a pioneer in establishing open joint-stock companies. Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan on Saturday stated this during the Mining Armenia Forum 2026 in Tsaghkadzor, Armenia.

“The mining sector is an exploitative one; that is, one that implements a technological process, because it is obvious that mining requires deep knowledge and large investments, and it cannot be implemented by one person or one company. This is a rather complex type of activity, where the state and investors cooperate. It was even surprising for me to notice that the more the state considers itself involved, the more positively it is perceived. In recent years, we have taken certain steps in this direction, but they were not institutional in nature.

Armenia has a stake in several mining companies, but this is not the approach we are striving for, as we want to ensure systematic and institutional solutions that will resolve a number of important issues. This is about establishing the institute of an open joint-stock company in the mining sector; I mean the process of listing companies on stock exchanges,” Pashinyan noted.

According to him, there are three factors in the presence of which a company cannot succeed on the stock exchange: if it is not transparent, if it is inefficient, or if it does not meet the established standards, because in this case the value of the company’s assets will decrease.

“And if we succeed in these three directions, then a fourth will also appear. The format of an open joint-stock company will give many citizens of Armenia the opportunity to become shareholders and, therefore, consider the business as their own.

This is exactly the perception of our participation in the Zangezur Copper Molybdenum Combine and the Amulsar [gold mine] project, so that the institution of an open joint-stock company stimulate the development of Armenia. Why haven’t we done this yet? For one main reason: I want to express my personal impression. I’m simply not convinced that we have enough knowledge in this area to be sure that the listing of shares will proceed according to the logic I presented.

We want many people to take advantage of these opportunities. There has already been a similar situation in Armenia, which in itself did not seem bad; it’s about the privatization of industrial enterprises in the 1990s. I don’t want the same thing to happen again, but here too we must admit that we do not have sufficient incentives, mechanisms, and knowledge to create the necessary conditions,” Pashinyan added.

He expressed a desire for Armenian citizens to have the opportunity to buy shares of the Zangezur Copper Molybdenum Combine and pass this capital on to their future generations.

“It would be great if we looked not only at this aspect, but also at how this process could become a mechanism for attracting more affordable resources to the sector and forming a more positive public opinion about the mining industry.

We would also like to see the expansion of production chains in this sector, which is essential for cost efficiency and export amounts. The goal is to export as many finished products as possible from the country,” Pashinyan noted.

The head of the Armenian government recalled the growth in gold and copper prices, expressing confidence that this trend will continue.

“On the one hand, this is an opportunity, since even small mining companies can be exploited, but here again the issue of changing public perception arises.

At the same time, we need to review and re-examine our subsoil in order to figure out what additional opportunities there are. And the fact that these opportunities exist is obvious,” Pashinyan concluded.

The co-organizers of Mining Armenia Forum 2026 are the Mining Forum Development Foundation and the Armenian Mining and Metallurgy Association. The strategic sponsors of the forum, which is being held for the third time, are the Zangezur Copper Molybdenum Combine and the Lydian Armenia company, and the main sponsors are Ameriabank and Teghout CJSC.