{"id":1131738,"date":"2019-08-09T07:45:47","date_gmt":"2019-08-09T12:45:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.mining.com\/?p=998937"},"modified":"2019-08-09T07:45:47","modified_gmt":"2019-08-09T12:45:47","slug":"armenia-to-announce-decision-on-lydians-gold-project-next-week","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/juniorminingnews.com\/?p=1131738","title":{"rendered":"Armenia to announce decision on Lydian\u2019s gold project next week"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Lydian International (TSX:LYD)&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.lydianinternational.co.uk\/news\/2019-news\/467-\"  rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" aria-label=\"will know next week (opens in a new tab)\">will know next week<\/a> whether the Armenian government will allow the company to continue building its Amulsar gold mine, located in the mountainous south of the country.<\/p>\n<div class='d-flex justify-content-center'>\n<div id='div-gpt-ad-1561499308230-0'><script>googletag.cmd.push(function() {googletag.display('div-gpt-ad-1561499308230-0');});<\/script><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p>The project has been illegally blocked<br \/>\nsince June last year by locals and environmental activists who claim the<br \/>\noperation would threaten several endangered animal species. These include the<br \/>\nworld&#8217;s rarest big cat, the Caucasian Leopard, of which there are only thought<br \/>\nto be 10 left in Armenia.<\/p>\n<p>Despite court rulings in Lydian\u2019s favour, police has not been able to restore uninterrupted access to the mine site.<\/p>\n<figure class=\"wp-block-pullquote alignright\">\n<blockquote>\n<p>Based on company\u2019s estimates, the blockade has cost Lydian about $100,000 a day and the loss of several key professionals.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<\/figure>\n<p>Ongoing opposition prompted the government in September to order a three-stage assessment. The objective was to study the possible impact of the project on the wildlife present in the mountain ranges of the Southern Caucasus and, particularly, in water resources such as Lake Sevan, which holds almost 25% of Armenia&#8217;s fresh water supply.<\/p>\n<p>The scope of the work included a<br \/>\nreview of the firm&#8217;s Environmental and Social Impact Assessment (ESIA) and<br \/>\nEnvironmental Impact Assessment (EIA), even though the later had been<br \/>\npreviously approved by the Armenian authorities before the firm began construction.<\/p>\n<p>Based on company\u2019s estimates, the blockade has cost Lydian about $100,000 a day and the loss of several key professionals.<\/p>\n<p>The TSX-listed miner <a href=\"https:\/\/www.lydianinternational.co.uk\/news\/2019-news\/467-\"  rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" aria-label=\" (opens in a new tab)\">said in a statement<\/a> it has provided the special investigative committee (SIC)&nbsp;with more than 300 documents, totalling about 20,000 pages of information. It has also participated in extensive technical discussions during the audit over the past four months.<\/p>\n<p>Lydian noted a translation of the final<br \/>\nconclusions will be delivered early next week.<\/p>\n<p>Opposition to mining in Armenia has<br \/>\nits roots in a long list of environmental disasters&nbsp;caused by<br \/>\nprevious operations, as well as in allegations of corruption among authorities<br \/>\nin charge of granting licences.<\/p>\n<p>The country, however, needs foreign<br \/>\ninvestment and jobs that, properly run and managed mining projects could bring<br \/>\nin.<\/p>\n<p>If approved, the Amulsar mine will be a large-scale operation with annual gold production averaging around 225,000 ounces over an initial 10-year life.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>This is the third audit on Amulsar, which has been halted by protests for over a year.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"footnotes":""},"categories":[949,369,4],"tags":[43],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/juniorminingnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1131738"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/juniorminingnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/juniorminingnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/juniorminingnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/8"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/juniorminingnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1131738"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/juniorminingnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1131738\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1131764,"href":"https:\/\/juniorminingnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1131738\/revisions\/1131764"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/juniorminingnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1131738"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/juniorminingnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1131738"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/juniorminingnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1131738"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}