Azerbaijan explores gold deposits once illegally exploited by Armenians in occupied lands Armenian-descent tycoon made illegal $177.5 million profit

The rehabilitation of the liberated territories of Azerbaijan does not limit to the restoration and reconstruction of the infrastructure, it covers also vast natural resources potential, including the gold deposits which are being explored.

The authorities of Azerbaijan have recently kicked off preliminary exploration and rehabilitation of the Vejnali goldfield in Zangilan District. The process is expected to be completed in the next six months before the start of production gets OK from the government. Vejnali is one of the top fields of Azerbaijan that is home to vast gold reserves in addition to copper and other natural resources.

Vugar Bayramov, a member of the Azerbaijani parliament, said the overall estimated reserves of the Vejnali goldfield are 6.5 tonnes based on the calculations dating back to the Soviet times. However, the preliminary exploration using modern technologies can reveal different numbers, according to him.

"Restoration and expansion of gold production in the Eastern Zangazur economic [which includes Zangilan] region will allow the creation of new processing industry in Azerbaijan. Part of the gold to be extracted in Vejnali will be processed and transferred to the domestic market. This will also increase our foreign exchange reserves,” Bayramov said.

“Locally produced gold products are expected to make inroads into the domestic market after the exploration and rehabilitation procedures are completed in the near future and the East Zangazur economic region will assume a special role in meeting Azerbaijan's demand for gold.”

The Vejnali goldfield, sitting on a 300 square kilometre area, is classified as a geological-industrial type of mineral deposit containing quartz-gold-sulfide. Twenty-five gold-containing quartz well zones have been explored in the field. The deposit was discovered in 1959-1962, and geological exploration was carried out there in 1962-1971, 1976-1981, and 1983-1984. Vejnali was registered by the Resources Commission of the Soviet Union in 1984 and included in the State Mineral Resources Balance of the Republic of Azerbaijan.

In October 2021, the Azerbaijani government issued a license to the UK-based Anglo Asian Mining Plc Company for starting the assessment and exploration activities in the Vejnali goldfield.

Vejnali suffered seriously from illegal exploitation activities of Armenians during the years of the occupation of Azerbaijani territories from 1991 to 2020. Five gold deposits of Azerbaijan, including Vejnali, and Soyudlu goldfields remained under the Armenian occupation for nearly three decades.

Until Zangilan’s liberation as part of the 44-day counter-attack operation of the Azerbaijani army on October 27, 2020, the Azerbaijani government was deprived of control over the goldfield. However, the investigations before 2020 have revealed numerous illegal activities in Vejnali by foreign companies, including Vallex Group, First Dynasty Mines, Base Metals, Lydian International, GeoProMining, and Vedanta Group, and the Armenian-descent businessmen and entrepreneurs having close relations with the Armenian government and diaspora.

The Franck Muller luxury watch manufacturer company, Frank Mueller Watchland, owned by Swiss tycoon of Armenian origin Vartan Sirmakes used gold from the Soyudlu and the Vejnali deposits of Azerbaijan in the production of Frank Muller watches and sold on Swiss stock exchanges. Sirmakes has reportedly exploited gold worth $302 million. His company opened a representation office in Armenia and in 2015 when Sirmakes was appointed the country’s Consul General to France by the then president Serzh Sargsyan and got an OK from the Armenian authorities for his illegal “investments” in the Karabakh region of Azerbaijan.

Vartan Sirmakes is said to make an estimated $177.5 million profit from Karabakh’s precious metal deposits. He has also intended to build a plant in Armenia to process the precious metals extracted in Karabakh for producing and marketing the gold, illegally obtained from the occupied Azerbaijani territories, as “Armenian precious metals”.

“The illegal exploitation of the Vejnali gold deposit by foreigners, including foreigners of Armenian origin, will cost them dearly. We know the names of those people. We will expose them to the world and they will compensate us. They will definitely pay compensation for the damage,” President Ilham Aliyev said in one of his speeches in May 2022.

In 2015, the Prosecutor General's Office of Azerbaijan launched a criminal case against Vartan Sirmakes and put him on the international wanted list. The investigation has fetched enough information about Sirmakes' illegal economic activities and, in particular, his involvement in the illegal exploitation of gold deposits. The facts have been submitted to the Prosecutor General's Office of the Swiss Confederation, where the Armenian-descent tycoon is based.

According to the preliminary estimates, the amount of material damage caused by Armenians to Azerbaijan’s infrastructure, resources, and citizens in the once occupied lands stands at $818 billion. The environmental crimes caused $285 billion in damages.

The Azerbaijani government is set to launch legal proceedings demanding compensation for damage and ecological terror committed by Armenia.

Mushvig Mehdiyev