Myths

Myths About Lydian Armenia and the Amulsar Project

Year by year, the most incredible and the most senseless myths have been spread about Lydian Armenia and the Amulsar project with the sole purpose of forming a negative attitude to the Company and the Project. As a responsible company, Lydian Armenia highlights the transparency and continuous development of relationship with the Project stakeholders and feels obliged to dispel the myths by presenting the truth and the reality. 

Amulsar is not Kaqavasar

According to one of the myths, Amulsar was discovered in Soviet times and the Amulsar is the same Kaqavasar mine. Amulsar and Kaqavasar are completely different mines. And the myth is far from reality. The Amulsar gold mine was discovered after the Soviet times, during the independence of Armenia, by a team of Armenian and foreign geologists, led by Tim Coughlin and Hayk Aloyan, as a result of extensive surveys. Silver and multi-metal surveys were conducted in the Soviet times at the Kaqavasar and not the Amulsar. It is easy to see on geological maps that the morphological and geological structures of Kaqavasar and Amulsar are completely different.

Moreover, parallel to the prospecting works launched by Lydian Armenia at the Amulsar in 2005, there was another company engaged in geological survey in Kaqavasar and holding a relevant license in 2004-2010. 

No Economically Feasible Reserves of Uranium at Amulsar

According to another myth, there are economically feasible reserves of uranium at the Amulsar based on the findings of the “Gromov” expedition of 1952-1954. In August 2020, the RA Nuclear Safety Committee of Armenia confirmed that this claim is also baseless. Besides, the fact that Gromov expedition-revealed area doesn’t have economically feasible reserves of uranium and is located at a 5 km’s distance from the Amulsar Project open pits, where the mining operations will be conducted. This important fact has been regularly bypassed by the Amulsar Project opponents referring to the Gromov expedition to give credibility to the myth. 

No Turkish Capital in the Amulsar Project

As you know, by May 2020 Lydian Armenia was fully-owned by Lydian International public company listed at the Toronto Stock Exchange, with its shares traded in international market. This means that anyone, of every nation and occupation, can buy and sell the shares at any time and at any place. Thus, aside from the major institutional shareholders of the Lydian International (such as the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development, the International Finance Corporation, Amber Capital, Franklin Resources, Donald Smith Value Fund LP, Van Eck, etc.), holding the controlling stake, there are several thousands of minority shareholders, who are physical entities of various nationalities, including numerous Armenians from both Armenia and Diaspora. Hence, it is а nonsense to suggest the availability of Turkish or any other national capital in the Amulsar Project.

But it should be mentioned that there is no need for the above explanation as the Company was delisted from the Stock Exchange as a result of the restructuring in 2020 and Lydian Armenia with its Amulsar Project was transferred to Lydian Canada Ventures Company, which is 100%-owned by Orion Mine Finance and Canadian Osisko Gold Royalties. Hence, in case of the Amulsar we have nothing else but the American and Canadian capital, and the other information is just a misrepresentation and manipulation.