Things are really beginning to crack on at Lydian International Ltd (TSE:LYD), which achieved full-scale construction in the third quarter at its Amulsar gold project.
The Armenia-focused company now has a workforce that tops 1,400 (including contractors) and they were hard it during the quarter just finished, with significant work advancing at all elevations, Lydian reported.
Earthworks remained the principal focus for much of the quarter, but activities increasingly moved on to concrete and equipment assembly.
As at the end of September, total commitments reached 80% of estimated total project costs, and overall completion was tracking on plan at 60%.
“During the third quarter, we continued to make significant progress in the construction and development of the Amulsar Gold Project. We received the second advance of $25 million under the Term Loan Agreement, utilized an initial $36.7 million under the ING Bank equipment financing facility, and ended the quarter with a strong cash position of $72 million,” noted Howard Stevenson, president and chief executive of Lydian.
“With total project cost commitments at 80% and overall project completion at 60%, we continue to de-risk the project and move closer to becoming a large-scale gold producer in 2018,” he added.
As a pre-revenue company, Lydian is loss-making; in the third quarter its post-tax loss narrowed to US$3.06mln from US$3.95mln the year before.
It ended the quarter with cash and cash equivalents of US$72.5mln, down from US$137.2mln at the beginning of the year.