{"id":1137951,"date":"2019-09-12T12:03:53","date_gmt":"2019-09-12T17:03:53","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.mining.com\/?p=1001738"},"modified":"2019-09-12T12:03:53","modified_gmt":"2019-09-12T17:03:53","slug":"orion-trimms-stake-in-armenia-focused-gold-miner-lydian","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/juniorminingnews.com\/?p=1137951","title":{"rendered":"Orion trimms stake in Armenia-focused gold miner Lydian"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Private equity firm Orion Mine Finance has <a href=\"https:\/\/www.newswire.ca\/news-releases\/orion-mine-finance-provides-an-update-on-sale-of-ordinary-shares-of-lydian-international-limited-837744568.html\"  rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" aria-label=\" (opens in a new tab)\">reduced its stake<\/a> in Armenia-focused Lydian International (TSX:LYD) to 11.7% from 13% after selling 10 million shares in the gold developer at C$0.10 each.<\/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>Lydian has been <a href=\"https:\/\/www.mining.com\/lydians-gold-project-in-armenia-faces-yet-another-environmental-review\/\"  rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" aria-label=\"trying to advance its Amulsar gold project (opens in a new tab)\">trying to advance its Amulsar gold project<\/a> in a mountainous area in the country\u2019s south for over a year, when opponents blocked access to the mine site.<\/p>\n<p>While the miner filed a complaint with local police to get protestors removed, officials declined to launch a criminal investigation on the issue. They said at the time that there was no basis for the removal of dissidents, their vehicles, tents and trailers.<\/p>\n<figure class=\"wp-block-pullquote alignright\">\n<blockquote>\n<p>The company&#8217;s Amulsar project has been halted since mid-2018, when protestors blocked access to the site.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<\/figure>\n<p>Lydian then went the legal way,<br \/>\napplying for a reversal of the police\u2019s decision.<\/p>\n<p>In January this year, Armenia\u2019s<br \/>\nhighest court of appeal ruled in the company\u2019s favour, but law enforcement<br \/>\nofficers have yet to restore uninterrupted access to the project site.<\/p>\n<p>Opponents claim Amulsar would<br \/>\nthreaten several endangered animal species that live in the area, including the<br \/>\nworld\u2019s rarest big cat, the Caucasian Leopard, of which there are thought to be<br \/>\nonly 10 left in Armenia.<\/p>\n<p>The mine site sits above a tunnel<br \/>\nthat supplies water to Lake Sevan, the largest freshwater lake in the whole<br \/>\nCaucasus region.&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/bankwatch.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/01\/Amulsar.-Report-2-Biodiversity-min.pdf\"  rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Scientists have warned<\/a>&nbsp;that acidic drainage from the<br \/>\nmine would inevitably seep into the lake, posing a threat to Armenia\u2019s water<br \/>\nsystem.<\/p>\n<p>Amulsar is also next to Jermuk, a spa town built around mineral springs, and an economy is based on health tourism.  Detractors claim dust from construction has curbed the influx of visitors and also affected crops and grazing. Cattle, they say, have increasingly refused drinking water from streams on the mountain since construction started, affecting local livelihoods.<\/p>\n<h2><strong>Rivals&#8217; campaign<\/strong><\/h2>\n<p>The conclusions of the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.mining.com\/lydian-scores-small-victory-in-armenia-as-criminal-probe-into-blockades-launched\/\"  rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" aria-label=\"report published last month (opens in a new tab)\">report published last month<\/a>, however, suggest that after taking additional safety measures recommended in the document, Lydian should be permitted to resume its operations.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;The Government of Armenia has said publicly that Lydian and the Amulsar Project have been the subject of a campaign by rival mining companies providing support to opponents of the Amulsar Project,&#8221; Lydian said <a rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" aria-label=\" (opens in a new tab)\" href=\"https:\/\/www.lydianinternational.co.uk\/news\/2019-news\/475-\" >in an August statement<\/a>.<\/p>\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.mining.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/09\/lydian-amulsar-map.jpg\" alt=\"Gold miner said to be the victim of rivals' bribing the Armenian government and locals to stop the Amulsar project.\" class=\"wp-image-1001748\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.mining.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/09\/lydian-amulsar-map.jpg 700w, https:\/\/www.mining.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/09\/lydian-amulsar-map-300x265.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 700px) 100vw, 700px\" \/><figcaption>Project location. (<em>Courtesy of <a href=\"https:\/\/www.lydianinternational.co.uk\/projects\/amulsar\"  rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"> Lydian International.<\/a><\/em>)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>&#8220;Armenian society has been<br \/>\ndragged into an endless discussion around an audit which had no legal grounds<br \/>\nto question Lydian&#8217;s rights to operate in the first place. When will the<br \/>\nGovernment of Armenia identify the rival mining companies conducting this campaign,<br \/>\nhow much has been paid to oppose the Amulsar Project and who has been<br \/>\npaid?&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>According to industry-known <em>Inca Kola News<\/em>, German miner Cronimet,&nbsp;which owns the Zangezur copper-moly mine in the former Soviet republic, is the <a href=\"https:\/\/incakolanews.blogspot.com\/2019\/09\/lydian-lyd-cronimet-of-germany-is.html\"  rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" aria-label=\" (opens in a new tab)\">main company behind Pashinyan\u2019s change of hearts<\/a>. <\/p>\n<p>The report claims Cronimet has been \u201cbribing the Armenian government at Environment ministry level\u201d as well as providing cash and food to the protesters blocking the site.<\/p>\n<h2><strong>Fresh roadblocks<\/strong><\/h2>\n<p>The most recent barrier to Lydian\u2019s project came <a href=\"https:\/\/www.lydianinternational.co.uk\/news\/2019-news\/475-\"  rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" aria-label=\" (opens in a new tab)\">from an outside group<\/a>, Earth Link &amp; Advanced Resources Development (ELARD), which has said the company\u2019s application was deficient.<\/p>\n<p>In the weeks since, the country\u2019s Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan has shifted position more than once, between assuring Armenians the gold project is safe and casting doubts on the government&#8217;s own positive environmental assessment of Amulsar.&nbsp;<\/p>\n<figure class=\"wp-block-pullquote alignright\">\n<blockquote>\n<p>Construction is expected to restar by April or May next year, with Amulsar producing its first ore by late next year or early 2021.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<\/figure>\n<p>Earlier this week, Pashinyan <a href=\"https:\/\/www.lydianinternational.co.uk\/news\/2019-news\/476-\"  rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" aria-label=\" (opens in a new tab)\">met with both<\/a> activists and Lydian&#8217;s interim president and CEO, Edward Sellers, who agreed to allow independent monitoring of the site. <\/p>\n<p>Two days later, the nation\u2019s leader<br \/>\ntook to social media to ask protestors to clear the blockade.&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>The company says that even if they wanted to restart right away, that\u2019d be impossible. It doesn\u2019t expect to resume work at Amulsar until next April or May, though it will carry some rehabilitation and earth moving in the meantime.<\/p>\n<p>Production, in turn, will start late<br \/>\nnext year or in early 2021, depending on how construction advances, it noted.<\/p>\n<p>Minerals and metals make up about half of Armenia\u2019s exports and mining accounted for about 3% of the country\u2019s economic output in 2017, government data shows. <\/p>\n<p>Lydian foresees Amulsar as a large-scale operation with annual gold production averaging around 225,000 ounces over an initial 10-year life. Estimated mineral resources contain 3.5 million measured and indicated gold ounces and 1.3 million inferred gold ounces as outlined in the Q1 2017 technical report. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Company said to be victim of rivals bribing the government  and locals to stop the Amulsar project.<\/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\/1137951"}],"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=1137951"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/juniorminingnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1137951\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1138201,"href":"https:\/\/juniorminingnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1137951\/revisions\/1138201"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/juniorminingnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1137951"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/juniorminingnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1137951"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/juniorminingnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1137951"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}