The Karabakh land has not revealed all its secrets to outsiders

Work is beginning to assess the situation with minerals in the Karabakh and East Zangezur economic regions. The Geological Exploration Agency has already started preparatory work in this direction. Earlier it was reported that within two months, lithological, petrographic and mineralogical studies, field measuring work will be carried out in the liberated territories to study promising mining areas, as well as magnetic exploration at a distance of 150 km.

Geo Company LLC was selected to perform these works. It is a domestic company providing geological exploration services. An agreement has already been concluded with the company. The exploration work is expected to cost about 200,000 manats.

On Monday, President Ilham Aliyev delivered a speech at a meeting on the occasion of the 80th anniversary of the National Academy of Sciences of Azerbaijan. Among other burning topics, he also touched upon the richness of the interior of the liberated regions.

According to the head of state, geological exploration is of great importance, especially in Karabakh and Eastern Zangezur, because in Soviet times this territory was not properly explored. But even if there had been, it would still have been impossible to fully study it with the technologies of that time, the President noted. And the technologies available today open up great opportunities for geological exploration.

"On my instructions, a lot of geological work has been carried out in Karabakh and Eastern Zangezur for several months. I urge Azerbaijani scientists to do this work, and I am giving instructions to government agencies. I believe that in the next few months we will begin to receive very good news. We have the richest natural resources - deposits of gold, silver, copper, and polymetals. Their discovery, exploration, and development will bring us great benefits and lead to the creation of a large number of jobs in the Karabakh and East Zangezur regions," President Ilham Aliyev stressed.

The other day, we just touched upon the topic of minerals in the territories formerly under Armenian occupation, in the context of the disappearance of data on their geological assessment, more precisely, on the illegal export of these data from the republic in 1988. The results of the research conducted in these territories during the Soviet era ended up in Armenia, but were never applied to the case. Apparently, for the reason that the occupier did not want to invest in capital-intensive projects without guarantees of the stability of the status quo. The occupied lands were never recognized by Armenia, and support for the territorial integrity of Azerbaijan was constantly confirmed at the international level. Therefore, the Armenian side was engaged in plundering deposits that had already been explored and put into operation.

Even if these reports and valuable materials had not been stolen, as the head of state noted, previous technologies did not allow us to get the full picture. Now the rightful owners have returned to Karabakh and Eastern Zangezur, who will be able to get this complete picture using the opportunities available to Azerbaijan.

However, the already available data on the subsoil of the liberated regions allow geologists to call Karabakh and Eastern Zangezur the Azerbaijani Urals, bearing in mind the richness and diversity of the mineral resources available there. There are more than 800 mineral deposits in these territories.

Before the occupation, the reserves of 167 mineral deposits discovered in Karabakh were included in the official balance sheet of Azerbaijan. Of these, 141 are deposits of solid ore and non-metallic rocks, 26 are deposits of underground fresh and thermal waters, and 16 are deposits of drinking groundwater.

It is known that large reserves of gold, copper, mercury, lead and zinc are concentrated in the Karabakh and East Zangezur economic zones. There are significant reserves of building materials such as marble, granite, tuff, basalt, limestone, perlite, alabaster, vermiculite and raw materials for the production of cement and clay. In addition, there are deposits of chromite, coal, decorative and ornamental stones, as well as rare earth metals.

The East Zangezur economic Region is the richest in precious metals. This is especially true for Kalbajar and Zangilan districts. Kalbajar can be safely called the repository of Azerbaijan's gold reserves. As a result of the geological exploration carried out here since the 1950s, mineral deposits have been discovered, the reserves of which have been calculated and included in the state balance sheet. Before 1993, that is, before the Armenian occupation, the Kalbajar region had deposits of 130 tons of gold, 190.33 tons of silver, 45.82 tons of tellurium, 248.89 tons of selenium, and 939 tons of mercury.

The most famous gold deposits in Kalbajar are Seyudlu with reserves of 112.5 tons, Agduzdag and Tutgun with reserves of more than 13 tons. Geological exploration is already underway at the latter. There are other promising sites in the district, where research has also begun. Agduzdag has about 100 gold-bearing quartz, quartz-carbonate veins, in 5 of which industrial gold mineralization has been established. The gold ores of the deposit are divided into two categories - pure gold and electrum. Electrum is an alloy of gold with 35-40 percent silver.

During the occupation, the Seyudlu field, the largest in the Caucasus, was illegally exploited by Armenian and foreign companies. According to Azerbaijan's internationally recognized borders, 75 percent of the field is located on Azerbaijani territory. The deposit consists of 23 gold-bearing veins, 17 of which are located directly in Kalbajar, and only 6 on the Armenian side. Despite this, at one time the State Commission on Mineral Reserves under the Council of Ministers of the USSR indicated this deposit on its maps, based on the data of the Academy of Sciences of the Armenian SSR, that is, entirely located on the territory of Armenia. It was only during the mining process that it became clear that the data provided by the Armenian scientists were false. During the occupation, the field was looted with the participation of a Russian mining company, which also thought it was operating in Armenia and everything was according to the law. Perhaps these were just attempts to justify themselves to Baku.

In Zangilan, the main gold reserves are concentrated in the Vezhnali deposit. There are 2,169 tons of gold in one of the blocks of the deposit, and 4,347 tons in the other.

In general, during the years of the Armenian occupation, the Seyudlu and Gyzylbulag fields in Kalbajar, Vezhneli in Zangilan, Demirli in Terter and many others were plundered. The facts of illegal mining were confirmed by Azersky satellite imagery from Azercosmos. In total, 20 countries invested in illegal mining in the territories occupied by Armenia.

In addition to looting, the Armenian side also made attempts to conduct geological exploration on the occupied lands. A "geological laboratory" was established in Khankendi, which carried out survey work. As reported by the Armenian media, as a result of these works, the presence of non-ferrous metal ores and coal was revealed in the Agder district, zinc, lead, copper, gold, pyrite and Dutch spar were found in the Khojavend district. In-depth exploration and evaluation required funds and specialists. The separatists hoped that the finds would be of interest to foreign investors. However, there were no people willing to invest in development in the "gray zone". Except for the Armenian billionaires from Russia and the Armenian mining companies themselves.

The Azerbaijani land has not revealed all its secrets to the invaders.