www.lydianinternational.co.uk
Lydian International is a mineral exploration and development company with expertise and a proven track record in discovering and developing new gold projects in unfamiliar and frontier settings. The Company is currently focussed on developing its Amulsar gold discovery in southern Armenia. The Amulsar project was a new discovery made by Lydian in 2006 and currently hosts a global resource of 3.2M ounces after its resource update in January 2012. This resource update comprises a total of 1.7 million ounces gold in the indicated category and 0.6 million ounces gold in inferred category (using a 0.4g/t cut-off) from the contiguous Tigranes and Artavasdes areas and 0.5 million ounces gold in the indicated category and 0.4 million ounces inferred category from the Erato prospect which is located approximately 900 meters to the north of Tigranes-Artavasdes. The project remains open in all directions and is currently advancing towards Bankable Feasibility with full production due in the first half of 2014.
Lydian International defers payment to Newmont for Amulsar gold project in line with agreement
Lydian has now notified Newmont that, in line with the purchase agreement between the parties from February 2010, Lydian is deferring the payment by a year until December 31 2012
Lydian International (TSE:LYD) is deferring a US$5 million payment owed to Newmont Mining in a move to strengthen its cash position and thus ensure it is fully funded for the immediate next stage of developing its Amulsar gold project in Armenia.
Lydian took full control of Amulsar by buying out its joint venture partner Newmont, and the payment in question was initially scheduled to be made on December 11 2011.
It has now notified Newmont that, in line with the purchase agreement between the parties from February 2010, Lydian is deferring the payment by a year until December 31 2012, and the sum will bear an annual interest of 10 percent until paid.
President and chief executive Tim Coughlin said: "Our decision to defer making this payment strengthens the company's cash position and ensures that the company has sufficient funds to meet all of its budgeted operational needs for a period extending beyond April 2012 when delivery of a bankable feasibility study for Amulsar is expected.
"This decision gives us added flexibility to properly assess our production financing options for the Amulsar project and continue our progress toward planned production," he added.
The Amulsar project has a total gold resource of 2.5 million ounces which is open in all directions. Lydian hopes to increase that beyond 3 million ounces with the latest drill programme.
The company plans to mine from one open pit from the Tigranes and Artavasdes areas of the project, as well as a separate open pit for Erato in the north. The costs are expected to be comfortably mid-curve at US$419 an ounce to around US$499 – which means the economics are fairly robust.
The preliminary feasibility study said the company could mine Amulsar for seven years, starting initially at 123,000 ounces a year and ramping up to 256,000.
However that was based on mineable material of around 1.64 million ounces.
