The doors to the “Zangezour Copper Molybdenum Combine” located in Kajaran, the Syunik Marz, have always been closed to reporters except when visited by high-ranking officials from Yerevan. Only then will the plant’s administration allow a select number of reporters to enter the factory’s ore processing and enrichment units. This is where the precious copper and molybdenum ore is obtained from raw rock.

Last week eight reporters from Yerevan and Kapan were again denied admittance to the plant’s recovery unit at the last minute after having received entry permission in advance of their visit. Inga Zarafyan, President of the EcoLur NGO, an Armenia-based organization designed to promote eco-journalism in Armenia, stated that, “On two occasions we have organized visits to the “Zangezour Copper-Molybdenum Plant” and on both we have been denied access. This last time we had the clear consent of the Mr. Artur Hakobyan, Assistant to the Plant’s Director, but at the last minute, for some inexplicable reason, he refused us entry.”