Lydian International Ltd T.LYD

Underestimated acid drainage and contaminant leaching potent

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Lydian and its consultants have made simplistic and inaccurate statements

 

about the potential of the mine to pollute waters. For example, they claim

 

that all the ore is oxide. This implies that cyanide heap leaching will be effective in recovering gold from the ore and that the spent ore remaining on site will not pollute springs, groundwater or surface water. Lydian has further stated that none of the Amulsar ore and only a portion of the barren (waste) rock will generate acid. These statements are not supported by Lydian’s own results or by experience from other mine sites. Lydian’s own data about the geologic complexities at the siteshow that sulfide minerals are present in the ore and waste and that it will not be possible to adequately separate them from ore, which means that there is a potential for long-term acid generation and contaminant release (even after lime addition) from the spent heap and the waste rock. The potential for long-term release of contaminants cannot be properly determined with the present data because too few samples of ore and waste were tested and

 

because samples with higher metal and sulfide content were excluded from testing, resulting in a bias that underestimates contaminant release.

 

Using Lydian’s data and the approach recommended by the industry-sponsored GARD Guide, nearly all the ore and waste samples analyzed are potentially acid-generating. When acid drainage forms, metal and sulfate concentrations increase markedly. Lydian has focused on acid

 

-generation potential but not talked publicly about the potential for Amulsar wastes and spent ore to leach metals and other contaminants to nearby streams and groundwater. Their test results show that leachate from the spent ore and waste rock at Amulsar will contain high concentrations of antimony, arsenic, copper, and zinc well above Armenian water quality standards. Antimony and arsenic can easily enter the food chain and pose a risk to humans at low concentrations. Copper and zinc are toxic to fish and other aquatic biota at low concentrations, especially in waters with low hardness values, such as those at key locations near the mine. Other important contaminants of concern at Amulsar with known toxicity to humans or aquatic life include ammonia, cadmium, cyanide, lead, mercury, nitrate, and selenium. Experience at other heap leach operations shows that thiocyanate is also likely to form and will require removal because of its toxicity. Lydian has presented a water treatment scheme that removes a small number of these contaminants, but they cannot state with certainty that other contaminants like arsenic, antimony or mercury will not be released and adversely affect the water and crops of people living downstream from the mine.