Looking for the tombs of dragons’: preliminary results of archaeo-geochemical prospecting studies at Tirinkatar - Karmir Sar area, southern slopes of Mt Aragats, Armenia.

This article reports on an interdisciplinary archaeogeochemical research on vishaps (stone stelae also known as dragon stones) that has been carried out for the first time in Armenia. The survey area is situated in the neighborhood of Tirinkatar and Karmir Sar volcanoes on the southern slopes of Mt. Aragats. The geochemical prospecting studies have been realized on a high mountain meadow (2850 m asl) with 12 vishaps and numerous circular stone structures known as cromlechs. Five cromlechs excavated until now did not yield any human remains and the main aim of the geochemical prospection was to check whether other cromlechs detected by archaeological surface survey and by ground-penetrating radar contained burials. The geochemical haloes of some chemical elements indicate their anthropogenic character and a very high probability that some of the cromlechs were tombs

Dragons under Microscope: Determination and Identification of the Geological Sources of Vishap Stone Stelae

This article reports the results of the first-of-its-kind archaeo-geological survey of the vishaps located in the area of the Tirinkatar and Karmir Sar volcanoes on the southern slope of mount Aragats, Armenia. The survey identified the petrographic and petrochemical features of the rocks from which the vishaps were carved. The results indicates that the vishaps were produced from rocks found nearby, consistently favoring the softer tuff lava (rocks intermediate in structure and formation between lavas and volcanic tuffs) and tuff over the harder-to-work basaltic andesites

Structural control and tectonic environment of the Cenozoic giant Kadjaran porphyry Cu-Mo and epithermal system, southern Armenia, Lesser Caucasus

In this contribution, we focus on the Oligocene to Miocene structural evolution of the giant Kadjaran porphyry Cu-Mo deposit and its epithermal overprint. This evolution was controlled by long-lived regional faults during the Cenozoic tectonic and magmatic evolution of the Meghri-Ordubad composite pluton located in the southernmost Lesser Caucasus. We discuss the ore-bearing fracture network characteristics related with the deposit-scale ore-controlling structures in the frame of regional strike-slip faults. Stereonets summarizing the orientations of different generations of mineralized veins allow us to constrain the favorable fracture network environment for ore-formation at the giant Kadjaran deposit. During the middle - late Oligocene, NNE-oriented shortening created the major ~N-S- and NE-oriented steeply dipping ore-controlling deposit-scale faults under dextral strike-slip tectonics. The gently to moderately dipping NE-, ~N-S- and ~E-W-oriented fracture networks along the steeply dipping deposit-scale faults were the most important structural control for the emplacement of the main porphyry stockwork mineralization. These deposit-scale ore-controlling faults were reactivated during the early Miocene under WNW-oriented shortening and NNE-oriented extension. The progressive anticlockwise rotation of paleostress orientations from middle - late Oligocene to early Miocene was linked to re-organization of tectonic plates during Arabia-Eurasia collision

Extraction of Copper from Copper Concentrate by Indigenous Association of Iron-Oxidizing Bacteria

Bioleaching of Cu from the copper concentrate of Armanis gold-bearing polymetallic ore (Armenia) was investigated. The main objective was revealing high active bacteria and their association, as well as optimizing the bioleaching process with their application to ensure the most efficient recovery of copper from the tested concentrate. To obtain optimal bacterial associations, bottom-up and top-down approaches were used. Bioleaching of copper concentrate was carried out using pure cultures of iron- and sulfur-oxidizing bacteria and their mixed culture, as well as indigenous bacterial consortium. Comparative studies of copper bioleaching by mixed cultures of Acidithiobacillus caldus, Leptospirillum ferriphilum CC, Sulfobacillus thermosulfidooxidans 6, and indigenous consortium Arm of iron-oxidizing bacteria were performed. At the beginning of bioleaching, the amounts of extracted copper by mixed culture and Arm consortium were equal; afterward, between 20–27 days, the Arm indigenous consortium showed significantly higher activity in terms of copper extraction. In parallel, mineralogical and liberation analyses of feed material and bioleaching residues were performed