TORONTO, ONTARIO--(Marketwire - Feb. 19, 2013) - Lydian International Ltd. (TSX:LYD) ("Lydian" or "the Company"), a gold-focused mineral exploration and development company, today announces a geology update for its Amulsar gold project in Armenia. Amulsar is a feasibility stage (see press release September 7, 2012) high-sulfidation style, heap-leach gold project with reported CIM compliant Proven and Probable reserves of 2.29M Oz Gold at 0.8 g/t and 9.98M Oz Silver at 3.3 g/t and a resource of 0.2M Oz Gold at 1.0 g/t in Measured and Indicated categories and 1.1M Oz Gold at 0.9 g/t in the Inferred category.
Detailed structural mapping by consultant structural geologist, Dr. Rod Holcombe, coupled with in-house 3D data integration and modelling, has significantly advanced the Company's geologic understanding of its Amulsar gold deposit in Armenia. In particular, the Company's management believes that the revised geology model implies that there are potentially significant large areas of gold mineralization that remain to be drill tested at Amulsar. The Company is planning a 40,000 meter drill program this year, a significant component of-which will be aimed at testing these newly identified targets.
Of key importance, the newly revised geology model recognizes the predominantly volcanosedimentary nature of the deposit host rocks and relatively large-scale faulting events that have juxtaposed 'slices' of gold-mineralized and barren rock units (see map and sections in Appendix). The deposit host rocks comprise of two distinct volcanosedimentary sequences separated by a time discontinuity; the gold resource is predominantly hosted within the younger upper volcanic sequence (UV). The older lower volcanic sequence (LV) is dominated by argillic-altered massive porphyritic andesite. The upper volcanic sequence is characterised by coarse volcaniclastic breccia occurring within debris flow channels incised into a thick package of finer grained volcanogenic rocks.
In numerous parts of the deposit slices of the unmineralized lower volcanic sequence have been structurally emplaced into or overlying the upper sequence, particularly at the Tigranes region (see sections in Appendix). These slices of lower volcanics are commonly 10-20 meters thick, but deeper drilling in 2012 shows that they can range up to more than 60 meters thick. In the past, these thicker slices were thought by the Company to be the base of mineralization. However, the new results show significant intervals of mineralization occur below these thicker slices, which suggests that the true base of gold mineralization is as yet unknown (see for example section D-D' in Appendix).
Drilling at Erato in 2012 has shown the area to hold significant resource potential, with numerous drill-holes revealing large gold mineralized zones still open at depth and towards the North and East. In particular, the lower volcanics that overlies the eastern part of the Erato pit, has been shown to be about 80m thick and has been thrust over the gold mineralized sequence (see section A-A' in Appendix). This structure extends to the southeast providing significant depth potential over a considerable distance. Mineralization at Erato corresponds well to induced polarization resistivity and when viewed in light of these data the extent of the potentially gold-mineralized volume is clearly evident (see section A-A' and induced polarization resistivity plot in Appendix).
Drilling during 2012 also extended known gold mineralization at Arshak by up to 200 meters from the current pit-shell design towards the southeast and this area remains open both laterally and at depth.
The information in this news release was compiled and reviewed by Dr. Tim Coughlin, BSc (Geology), MSC (Exploration and Mining), PhD (Structural Geology), FAusIMM; CEO and President of Lydian International Ltd. and a qualified person as defined by National Instrument 43-101.
Lydian employees are instructed to follow standard operating and quality assurance procedures intended to ensure that all sampling techniques and sample results meet international reporting standards. Drill core is cut on-site and rock-chips are split to ensure representative sampling. Half core and remaining rock-chips are stored on-site. On-site personnel log and track all samples prior to sealing and shipping. Quality control is monitored by the insertion of blind certified standard reference materials and blanks into each sample shipment. All resource sample shipments are sealed and shipped to ALS Chemex, an independent third party. All assay work for the released results was carried out by ALS Chemex at its analytical laboratory in Rosia Montana, Romania. ALS Chemex's quality system complies with the requirements for the International Standards ISO 9001:2000 and ISO 17025:1999. Analytical accuracy and precision are monitored by the analysis of reagent blanks, reference material and replicate samples. More information can be found on Lydian's web site at
www.lydianinternational.co.uk.