Name of the Project
Amulsar gold project.

Location
South central Romania.

Project Owner/s
Lydian International.

Project Description
Lydian International has updated the feasibility on the Amulsar project after demonstrations and road block hamstrung the development of the project for about 15 months.

The project is expected to be a large-scale, low-cost operation with gold production averaging 246 000 oz/y during the first five years and about 204 000 oz/y overall over an initial ten-year life-of-mine (LoM).The feasibility study envisages an owner-operated mining fleet delivering run-of-mine ore at a nominal rate of ten-million tonnes a year. The crushed ore will be transported about 5.3 km by overland conveyor to a crushed ore stockpile. From there, it will be reclaimed by belt feeders underneath the stockpile and transferred by conveyor to a loadout bin. Trucks will haul the ore about 0.5 km to the heap-leach pad for stacking.

The leach pad will be built in five phases, with a total ore heap-stacking capacity of 120-million tonnes over a 12-year LoM.

Gold production will average 246 000 oz a year during the first five years of operations to support early payback of project debt and equipment financing in under five years.

Potential Job Creation
Not stated.

Net Present Value/Internal Rate of Return
The project has an after-tax net present value, at a 5% discount rate, of $600-million and an internal rate of return of 24.8% based on a gold price of $1 300/oz.

Capital Expenditure
The project has initial capital costs of $508-million, which includes current incurred costs of $362-million used to complete about 75% of the project.

Planned Start/End Date
In September 2019, the company said that the Amulsar project could be producing by late 2020 or early 2021.

Latest Developments
Lydian International will turn to the Administrative Court of Armenia for an order compelling the Environment Ministry to issue a water permit for the contested Amulsar project.

This comes after the Environment Minister rejected the mining company’s application for a licence to draw 40 ℓ/s from the Darb river.

The company initially requested 43.5 ℓ/s, but the Ministry said it needed to revisit the requested volumes, owing to seasonal insufficiency of water in the river during three months of the year.

Lydian is now challenging the Ministry on the basis that it failed to decide on the application within the stipulated timeframe.

Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan said in September that there was no legal basis that government could prevent the company from advancing Amulsar in accordance with its permits and that access to the project should be restored.

The company wants to restart construction by April or May 2020, although some rehabilitation and earth-moving associated with site recovery could start earlier.

Work on the project was halted in June last year, when protestors set up illegal blockades preventing access to the mine. Before the demonstrations, Lydian was working towards entering production in the fourth quarter of 2018, ramping up to full output in 2019.

Key Contracts and Suppliers
JDS Energy & Mining (project management, environmental/permitting/social, operating expenditure and economic analysis; project capital expenditure; mineral reserve estimate and mining methods, as well as recovery methods; and infrastructure); Samuel Engineering (metallurgy); WGM (geology and mineral resource estimates) and Golder Associate (water management and barren rock storage facility).

On Budget and on Time?
The Amulsar project has faced several setbacks and delays, as groups campaigned against the mine over concern about its impact on the environment. The project has been subject to three full-scale environmental audits, all of which it has passed.

Contact Details for Project Information
Lydian International, tel +1720457 2382.