Lydian International Ltd. held a groundbreaking ceremony at its Amulsar gold project in Armenia, on August 19, as it moves into the construction phase. “Our priorities for the balance of 2016 include mass earthworks for the heap-leach facility, construction of haul roads and building of facility platforms,” said Howard Stevenson, Lydian president and CEO. “This ceremony marks an important milestone as we move to a transformational phase at Amulsar. We are grateful for the continuous support and trust of the government of Armenia, community leaders, the people of adjacent communities and heads of diplomatic missions.”
Located in south-central Armenia, Amulsar is expected to be the largest gold mine in Armenia, producing an average of 243,000 oz/y of gold over the initial five years of operations. With this scale of production and the initial 10-year life-of-mine total cash cost estimated at $509/oz, Amulsar should be a highly profitable operation. As construction progresses and operations begin, Lydian will also be evaluating future additional potential from currently defined inferred mineral resources and, ultimately, from open extensions at depth.
Production is expected to begin in 2018 using conventional open-pit mining and heap-leach processing.
