The Amulsar project covers a region of high-sulphidation, epithermal-type gold mineralisation located in central Armenia and discovered by Lydian in 2006.

In March 2009, Lydian released an NI-43101 compliant inferred resource of 1M ounces at 1g/t gold at the project. This resource was drilled out in 2008 during just one field season and remains open and untested in all directions.

The Amulsar project forms part of Lydian's Caucasus Joint Venture with Newmont Overseas Exploration Ltd, a wholly owned subsidiary of Newmont Mining Corporation. The licences are held 100% by Geoteam, an Armenian registered closed joint stock company. Geoteam CJSC is held 95% by Lydian Resources Armenia (a wholly owned subsidiary of Lydian International Ltd.) and 5% by a private local partner.

Amulsar is a completely new discovery. Gold was first discovered in 2006. In 2006 and 2007 soil geochemical analyses identified an area of 3.5 by 0.5 km with a one square kilometer core of values exceeding 0.1 g/t gold, including localised high-grade soil samples of up to 2.13 g/t gold. More than 25% of grab rock-chip samples collected to date have returned grades of greater than 1 g/t gold. Trench samples have returned results of 128 metres at 1.3 g/t gold (complete trench) and channel samples have returned 20 metres at 9.9 g/t (highest value 23.9 g/t), 23 metres at 9.3 g/t (highest value 30.6 g/t), and 13 metres at 2.5 g/t (highest value 4.6 g/t), all at a 0.5 g/t cut-off.

Five scout diamond drill holes totalling ~600 metres were drilled in 2007 representing the very first subsurface test of the gold potential at Amulsar. A further 13,000 and 13,500 metres of combined diamond and reverse circulation drilling were completed at the project in 2008 and 2009 respectively. To date a total 31 diamond holes and 175 reverse circulation holes have been drilled. A summary of all drill results returned to date can be downloaded by clicking here. Best results are summarised in the table below.

Mineralisation at Amulsar is from surface and entirely oxidised with metallurgical tests indicating recoveries in excess of 90%. Access to existing infrastructure is excellent with a sealed road, two high-tension power lines, a natural gas pipe-line, a water pipeline and fibre-optic cable all transecting the license area. A recent heap-leach conceptual study conducted by Golder and s consultants suggests very low capital and treatment costs (download the pdf report).

Figure 1:

Amulsar Panoramas:

(Click images for expanded view)