Armenian Government is intended to set national parks and protected natural areas with clearly modified development programs.

ArmInfo. Armenian Government is intended to set national parks and protected natural areas with clearly modified development programs, Artsvik Minasyan, the Nature Protection Minister stated at the press conference held on December 27 in Yerevan. 

According to the Minister, within the framework of development and implementation of complete environmental policy the essential attention is paid to specially protected natural areas. The Minister reminded that on December 12 a Memorandum of Mutual Understanding was signed in respect to setting the National park of Jermuk.  The Memorandum signed is estimated for 5 years and assumes USD 5,7  mln investments aimed to protect local ecosystems. Folowing Minasyan, the creation of the National Park of Jermuk  is important not only from the point of ecosystems security, but also in respect to tourism and agriculture development.

To remind, according the idea of the project  authors , in the result of this project implementation  more support will be provided to the resort town of Jermuk. As Hayk Aloyan, the Executive Director of the Lydian Armenia stated  upon signing the Memorandum, the new project will be successful also in economic aspect  and in 5 years the National Park will become profitable and  completely self-funded project.

To note, Lydian International Limited is the sole shareholder of Lydian Armenia  CJSC.  The latter was incorporated in 2005 and after an extensive campaign of geological exploration in Armenia discovered what is now its flagship project - the Amulsar Mountain. Since 2006, the investment in exploration and other operations in Amulsar has amounted to nearly 80 million USD. Amulsar is a greenfield mining, the first for over 20 years in Armenia. The key shareholders of the Lydian are IFC, EBRD.  The company plans about $370 million capital investments in Amulsar project.    According to the feasibility study, the approved reserves are 2.5 million ounces, the total recoverable gold is 2.1 million ounces over a 10.4 year mine life, gold production averaging over 200,000 ounces per year  (10 million tons of ore), low all-in sustaining costs of $585 per ounce of gold, 87% gold recoveries.   Amulsar is the second largest deposit in Armenia in terms of the reserves. The Amulsar project envisages creation of 1,300 jobs in the course of construction and 650-700 jobs throughout the entire operation of the mine within the next 10 years.