In the coming years, Hayasa Metals plans to invest $10 to $20 million in Armenia to discover new copper deposits. Joel Sutherland, CEO of Canadian mining company Hayasa Metals, on Saturday announced this during the Mining Armenia Forum 2026 in Tsaghkadzor, Armenia.
If they discover small deposits that will not be interesting to investors, they will remain with the company, Sutherland said. He added that last year, he had noted that in the event of the discovery of a large deposit, its exploitation may start more than 10 years later and require an investment of $5 billion. Also, Sutherland informed that Hayasa Metals was looking for partners to carry out geological study in the Vardenis project in Armenia.
He stressed that data processing centers are being actively built, smartphones and computer equipment are being produced all over the world, but no new copper deposits are being discovered.
Considering that the pace of construction of data processing centers will only increase, the demand for copper will increase even more sharply, Sutherland noted, citing as an example the data centers in the United States, for the operation of which, according to various estimates, 10 to 50 thousand tons of copper are required.
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.