Agreement between Armenian government, Lydian Armenia postponed
ArmInfo.The conclusion of the agreement on the donation of 12.5% of shares out of 100% of the shares of the Lydian Armenia company is postponed until December 30 of this year. The decision on this was made at a meeting of the RA government on October 24.
According to the rationale for the draft decision, it was initially planned to conclude the agreement by November 1, 2024, but due to technical problems, these dates have been postponed.
On January 18 of this year, the Armenian government approved the decision to accept as a gift 12.5% of the shares of Lydian Armenia, which operates the Amulsar mine.
On February 22, 2023, the Government of the Republic of Armenia, Lydian Armenia CJSC and the Eurasian Development Bank signed a memorandum of understanding, which marked the restart of the Amulsar mine exploitation program. It was noted that $150 million would be attracted within the framework of the memorandum, of which $100 million would be EDB loan funds, $50 million would be provided by a local bank, and an additional $100 million would be invested outside the agreement by shareholders. After signing the memorandum, the then Minister of Economy of the Republic Vahan Kerobyan stated that the exploitation of the Amulsar mine would provide the state treasury with annual revenues of 30-40 billion drams, and with the launch of the mine, about 1,000 new jobs would be created in the Vayots Dzor region. As part of the deal, the Armenian government will receive 12.5% of the company’s shares, for which it will not pay anything, but instead will insure the deal against certain risks.
Previously, before the change of beneficiaries, Lydian Armenia was a subsidiary of the British offshore Lydian International, which placed its shares on the Toronto Stock Exchange. Then the company went through a delisting procedure. As a result of the restructuring, the full package of shares of the company was transferred to the newly created Canadian-American Lydian Canada Ventures, the beneficiaries of which are the American company Orion Mine Finance and the Canadian Osisko Gold Royalties. The total cost of the Amulsar project is $ 370 million. The mine life is 10 years and 4 months, while it is planned to extract an average of 200 thousand ounces of gold annually. The deposit is the second largest in terms of reserves in Armenia. According to the company, the deposit contains about 73,733 kg of gold with an average grade of 0.78 g per ton, as well as 294,367 tons of silver with an average grade of 9.29 g per ton. It is located in the southeast of the country, 13 km from the resort town of Jermuk, between the Arpa and Vorotan rivers.