President Ilham Aliyev touched upon the reasons hindering the development of the mining industry in Azerbaijan at a meeting dedicated to the State Program on the development of the mining and metallurgical industry.
“Elchi” reports that the head of state said in this regard: “Unfortunately, the mining industry in Azerbaijan has not developed to the required level due to both objective and subjective reasons. The objective reasons are that many of our deposits discovered during the Soviet era were located in the occupied territories, and the Armenian state continued its policy of occupation, including the plundering of the natural resources of the Azerbaijani people and state.”
The President also added that a certain degree of exploration work was carried out during the Soviet era. However, at that time, this region, especially Azerbaijan, was not considered a priority for the Soviet government in this field.