Lydian to start mining gold in Armenia's Amulsar project in Q3

PanARMENIAN.Net - Gold production is set to commence in the third quarter of 2018 at the Amulsar gold mine in south-central Armenia, said Lydian International Ltd, the Canadian mining group, according to Proactive Investors Limited.

Lydian’s management expects mining within the Amulsar project to produce 225,000 gold ounces annually over ten years and reports that it is currently completing construction of the mine haul road into the pit area.

“During 2017, we made excellent progress at the Amulsar gold project and are on track to commence operations in 2018,” Howard Stevenson, president and chief executive of Lydian, said. “As we move into the final stages of Amulsar’s construction, we will begin transitioning to commissioning activities this summer.”

The engineering and procurement work at the mine are finished and construction work is about two-thirds complete. Earthworks are also mostly complete in important areas, but work on the mine-haul road and barren rock storage facility persists.

Structural steel and prefabricated buildings are being installed at the crushing and screening plant while steelwork for the conveyor drive station has also started.

Over at the gold processing center, which includes the refinery, metallurgical lab and warehouse, structural steel and prefabricated buildings are being erected and the installation of equipment will continue through the second quarter of 2018. ADR is part of the processing works and regarding the absorption, desorption and refining (ADR) plant, Lydian said the majority of the structural steel and equipment is on site, while the balance is on schedule for delivery in the first quarter of 2018.

Focusing in on its finances, as of last December, Lydian had drawn C$192.8mln in aggregate under its debt facilities.

Last month, Lydian’s management announced a 10 to 12% increase in its capital costs for its preproduction activities, which are now set to be US$425mln. Its executive team is currently looking into various financing options and since the start of the year up until mid-March, it received additional cash advances from its debt facilities of US$56mln