Two large ferromolybdenum smelting plants have completed their re-equipment and resumed production capacities, the chairman of the Union of Miners and Metallurgists of Armenia Vardan Jhanyan has said in an interview with Sputnik Armenia.

Ferromolybdenum remains one of the most important export commodities of Armenia. In 2021, it became the 4th most valuable export item for the country (about $189 million). It is used in the production of stainless heat-resistant, heavy-duty alloys of non-ferrous metals, special types of steel, as well as in steel production.

Until 2020, molybdenum ore mined in Armenia was mainly smelted into ferromolybdenum (FeMo), and only a small part of it was exported. In 2020, however, two large FeMo smelting plants – Plant of Pure Iron and AMP (both in Yerevan) – underwent refurbishment and are now fully operational again, Jhanyan added.

At the same time, the Zangezur Copper-Molybdenum Combine and other mining enterprises have increased the production of both copper and molybdenum concentrate since last year. Therefore, now these two plants do not manage to smelt all the molybdenum raw materials.

"Smelting of ferromolybdenum has come to attract new enterprises, therefore, two new plants – one in Armavir, the other in the village of Alapars near Hrazdan – have started operating in recent years. So far, however, they are operating in small volumes, and therefore now part of the molybdenum concentrate is exported from Armenia without processing," Jhanyan said.