Wednesday, September 24 2014

 Armenia will be able to produce 12-14 tons of Dore gold in 2016-2017, Armenia's Economy Minister, Karen Chshmarityan, told journalists today. 

He also added that they will manage to gain such indices as a result of fulfillment of the programme on exploitation of Amuslar gold mine in the south of Armenia thanks to the investments of the "Lydian International" company. The minister said that they plan to attract significant funds in the mining industry, and Amuslar, that costs up to $500 million, is the biggest programme. He said that such an amount of gold will be enough for organizing its refining."This programme is becoming effective for organizing of the gold refining in the republic, and we have been working in this direction", - the minister said and added that this and other programmes will provide the growth of foreign investments. 

As it was earlier reported,  Lydian International Limited plans capital investments in the amount of $426 million in gold recovery in Armenia in 2015-2016. Lydian International has lately published the Positive Results from Updated Feasibility Study for its 100% -owned Amulsar Gold Project in Southern Armenia. The updated feasibility study that is available on the official website of the Company says the recoverable gold reserves total 2.130 million ounces.  The results of the study demonstrate Amulsar as a compelling opportunity for the development of a large-scale, low cost operating utilizing open mining and conventional heap leach processing.  

According to the Mineral Resources Estimate by the AMC Consultants (UK) Limited, the measured quantity of gold-bearing ore at Amulsar Gold Deposit is 77,200,000 tonnes.

 The estimated gold grade is 0.78 (g/t). The estimated silver grade is 3.7 (g/t), with the contained gold and silver totaling 1,940,000 (oz) and 8,810,000 (oz), respectively.  
Geoteam CJSC launched large-scale geological exploration at Amulsar Gold Deposit in 2006. It is the only gold deposit found in Armenia after the collapse of the Soviet Union. The sole owner of Geoteam is Lydian International Limited.  The company has already invested $55 million. 

At present Armenia exports Dore gold that contains up to 92% of gold. Pure (bank) gold is not produced in the republic (edt.)No official statistics on gold production is held in the republic. According to the Customs Service of Armenia, Armenia increased hold export by 18% on 2013 -up to 2 747.4 kg versus 2 329.8 kg in 2012.