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 climbs 12% after first batch of assay results from 2010 drill program impress
Shares in junior gold exploration company Lydian International popped 12% this morning after the company reported assay results from the first eleven holes of its 2010 drilling campaign at the Amulsar Gold Project in Armenia. Lydian has enjoyed considerable success at Amulsar, which has developed from a grassroots discovery to a 1.4 million ounce deposit in just a few years.
Results released today continued to confirm the potential of the project. Drilling assays released emanated from the Arshak and Tigranes-Artavasdes areas. Highlights included 34 meters grading 1 gram per tonne gold from DDA-034 in the Arshak area, 62 meters grading 1.3 grams per tonne gold in DDA-035 in the Artavasdes area, and 42 meters grading 2 grams per tonne gold from RCA-194 in the Tigranes area. All three holes included higher grade zones, including 11 meters @ 2.1 grams per tonne gold, 12 meters @ 2 grams per tonne gold and 10 meters at 5.4 grams per tonne gold in holes DDA-034, DDA-035 and RCA-194 respectively.
“These initial drilling results with higher grade intervals are part of this year’s resource upgrade program in the Tigranes and Artavasdes areas. The program aims to track and connect zones of higher gold grade within the current resource shell leading to an overall increase in grade and resource category,” Lydian noted to investors.
Drill hole DDA-034 was of particular significance as it was drilling 400 meters south of Artavasdes, implying an extension of the northwest-southeast trend between Artavasdes and Arshak.
“This is a solid set of initial results from our 2010 drill season which is progressing well and we have decided to increase this year’s program from 16,000 meters to 20,000 meters” said Tim Coughlin, President and CEO of Lydian. “We are starting to follow the higher grade zones at Tigranes which we believe will lead to an upgrade in the resource category and an overall increase in the gold grade. Drilling at Arshak has confirmed the potential along the ridge towards Artavasdes and results are still awaited from Erato in the north where we drilled 229m at 1g/t gold last year”.
Amulsar sits within the Tethyan fold belt, one of the principal geological features in the northern hemisphere. Extending from Central Europe and northern Africa across Turkey and the Middle East to the Himalayas and then on to the Far East and Indonesia. Stretching as it does across so many countries and cultures, many of which have been centres of political and geological upheaval over the centuries, the Tethyan belt is perhaps the least explored of all the earth’s major geological systems.
