AMULSAR GOLD PROJECT IN ARMENIA REMAINS OPEN IN ALL DIRECTIONS
ArmInfo news agency
2010-04-09 15:49:00
Interview with Tim Coughlin, President and CEO of Lydian International
Ltd exploration and development company
Lydian International Ltd is a diversified mineral exploration and
development company based in the UK and established in 2005. In January
2008, Lydian became a Public Company listed on Toronto Stock Exchange
(TSX:LYD). Lydian’s largest shareholders are the International Finance
Corporation (part of the World Bank Group), Newmont Mining Corporation
(the world’s second largest gold producer) and the European Bank for
Reconstruction and Development. The two main projects of the company
include gold at Amulsar in Armenia and polymetallic (zinc, lead,
silver and gold) at Drazhnje in Kosovo.
Lydian obtained an exploration license at Amulsar in March 2006. The
initial drilling started in 2007, and in 2008 Lydian completed a
14,000 m drill program to test the bulk tonnage potential and estimate
a gold resource. In May 2009, Lydian was granted a 25-year mining
license by the Government of Armenia. The Amulsar license is 100%
owned by Lydian’s wholly owned Armenian subsidiary, Geoteam CJSC.
Amulsar is a high-sulfidation type epithermal gold project, located
on the border of Vayots Dzor marz and Syunik marz of Armenia, 170
km away from Yerevan along a paved highway, with additional 6 km of
unpaved road, via the village of Gorhayk.
How will the 16 000 m of drilling scheduled for 2010 be divided among
the explored areas (Tigranes, Artavasdes, Erato, and Arshak)? When
the drilling of 2010 is going to be finished and how much investment
is it going to require?
We will be drilling most of the metres at Tigranes-Artavasdes followed
by Erato and other new areas that require further exploration. At
Tigranes-Artavasdes we are hoping to expand the resource envelope
and follow the higher-grade gold zones we identified in wider spaced
drilling during 2008. That should increase both the tonnage and the
grade of the resource. At Erato we finished the season last year with
a drill hole returning 229m at 1g/t gold. We have lots of drilling
to do there yet before we can outline the extents of this newly
discovered gold. We expect to be spending a further USD$7M on the
project this year.
Heap each amenability tests in November 2009 showed up to 95% gold
extraction from rock samples. Have any further tests been conducted?
Yes, we are considering many different methods to recover the gold,
including gravity, CIL (carbon in leach) as well as heap leach. Recent
column leach testing returned 90% recoveries which is very high.
Is it true that the tests have shown little necessity of ore crushing?
Can this estimate change with further tests, and if it does not, how
much will it reduce processing plant construction cost and increase
cost-effectiveness of production?
There is no indication yet that we can treat the ore without crushing.
We will be conducting those tests this year. If we can process without
crushing it can reduce costs by about 20%.
Have you conducted a new feasibility study for heap leach processing
plant?
We have not conducted any feasibility studies yet. We conducted a
scoping study for a potential heap leach plant but as I mentioned
previously we are exploring various options for treatment of the ore.
2009 October and November drilling has increased the resource estimate
from 1 to 1,4 mln ounces. How likely it is for the mineralized
zone estimate to enlarge geographically, and to what extent? What
expectations there are about the eventual gold grade?
The resource remains open and untested in all directions so it will
certainly grow. We also have the new promising results from Erato that
must be further explored. We are hoping to increase the resource to
in excess of 2M ounces by the end of 2010. The gold grade issue is
very interesting, there are high grade zones within the resource that
we need to test and follow with closer spaced drilling this year. We
are hoping that this will increase the average resource grade.
Has EBRD or IFC made any additional investments in Lydian in the
second half of 2009 or in 2010?
No, but they remain loyal supporters. IFC are helping us and ensuring
that our environmental and community relations programs meet World
Bank standards. We are very conscious of our high-profile position in
the Armenian investment environment and so along with our efforts on
community and environmental work our team aims to set the very best
example in terms of corporate governance and best practice. We are
essentially a foreign financed Armenian company and we are immensely
proud of our Armenian management and their technical teams.
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress