{"id":1150503,"date":"2019-11-19T05:13:53","date_gmt":"2019-11-19T11:13:53","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.mining.com\/?p=1007128"},"modified":"2019-11-19T05:13:53","modified_gmt":"2019-11-19T11:13:53","slug":"lydian-scores-small-victory-for-its-gold-project-in-armenia","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/juniorminingnews.com\/?p=1150503","title":{"rendered":"Lydian scores small victory for its gold project in Armenia"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Lydian International (TSX:LYD) scored a small victory for its gold project in Armenia after an appeals court <a href=\"https:\/\/www.lydianinternational.co.uk\/news\/2019-news\/483-lydian-announces-positive-decision-from-the-administrative-court-of-armenia-rejecting-an-attempt-to-revoke-the-eia-relating-to-the-amulsar-project\"  rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" aria-label=\" (opens in a new tab)\">rejected a motion to revoke Amulsar\u2019s Environmental Impact Assessment<\/a> (EIA), approved in April 2016.<\/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>A small number of citizens alleged that \u201cnew ecological factors\u201d had come to light, which justified voiding the evaluation of the proposed mine\u2019s impacts. The court, however, didn\u2019t find any new issues and dismissed the request.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe are thankful that the Armenian<br \/>\nJudiciary has confirmed the validity of the EIA,\u201d interim president and CEO,<br \/>\nEdward Sellers, said in a statement. \u201cThis Application is yet another example<br \/>\nof the continuing attempts to interfere with Lydian\u2019s legal right to develop<br \/>\nand operate the Amulsar Project.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>A long-running illegal blockade,<br \/>\nhowever, is still preventing access to Lydian\u2019s 75%-finished project, even<br \/>\nthough Armenia\u2019s highest court of appeal ruled in January that police should<br \/>\nintervene.<\/p>\n<p>Locals\u2019 concerns stem mainly from the<br \/>\nfact that Amulsar site sits above a tunnel that supplies water to Lake Sevan,<br \/>\nthe largest freshwater lake in the whole Caucasus 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>The project is also next to Jermuk,<br \/>\na spa town built around mineral springs, and an economy is based on health<br \/>\ntourism. Opponents to the mine claim dust from construction has curbed the<br \/>\ninflux of visitors and also affected crops and grazing. Cattle, they say, have<br \/>\nincreasingly refused drinking water from streams on the mountain since<br \/>\nconstruction started, affecting local livelihoods.<\/p>\n<p>Detractors have also argued the<br \/>\nmine would threaten several endangered animal species that live in the area,<br \/>\nincluding the world\u2019s rarest big cat, the Caucasian Leopard, of which there are<br \/>\nthought to be only 10 left in Armenia<\/p>\n<p>The conclusions of an&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.mining.com\/armenia-clears-lydian-to-go-ahead-with-amulsar-gold-project\/\"  rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">independent report published in August<\/a>, however, suggest<br \/>\nthat after taking additional safety measures recommended in the document,<br \/>\nLydian should be permitted to resume its operations.<\/p>\n<h2><strong>Tainted reputation<\/strong><\/h2>\n<p>Opposition to mining in Armenia has<br \/>\nits roots in a long list of environmental disasters&nbsp;caused by previous<br \/>\noperations, as well as in allegations of corruption among authorities in charge<br \/>\nof 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>Minerals and metals make up about<br \/>\nhalf of Armenia\u2019s exports and mining accounted for about 3% of the country\u2019s<br \/>\neconomic output in 2017, government data shows.<\/p>\n<p>Lydian foresees Amulsar as a<br \/>\nlarge-scale operation with annual gold production averaging around 225,000<br \/>\nounces over an initial 10-year life. Estimated mineral resources contain 3.5<br \/>\nmillion measured and indicated gold ounces and 1.3 million inferred gold ounces<br \/>\nas outlined in the Q1 2017 technical report.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A small number of citizens alleged that &ldquo;new ecological factors&rdquo; had come to light, which justified voiding Amulsar&rsquo;s Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA).<\/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":[2849,949,369],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/juniorminingnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1150503"}],"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=1150503"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/juniorminingnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1150503\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1150581,"href":"https:\/\/juniorminingnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1150503\/revisions\/1150581"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/juniorminingnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1150503"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/juniorminingnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1150503"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/juniorminingnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1150503"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}