Tag Archives: Armenia

Lydian secures funds to develop Armenian gold mine

DEC. 1 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) — Toronto-listed miner Lydian International said it had reached a $325m financing agreement to develop a gold mine in Armenia, an initiative that will boost the country’s gold output.

In a detailed statement, the company said it will receive a line of funding from US-based investment firms Orion Mine Finance and Resource Capital Funds. The money will be used to start construction at the Amulsar gold project in south- central Armenia.

Once preparation work is completed next year according to the company, Lydian forecasts a production rate of around 6 tonnes of gold per year from the Amulsar project. For a comparison, Armenia produced 3.5 tonnes of gold in 2013.

Lydian has been working on financing the project since 2006.

A fall in gold prices, down around 13% year-on-year on Dec. 1 at $1,069/ounce – a 5-year low, has put pressure on mining companies with operations in the South Caucasus and Central Asia.

Lydian’s CEO Howard Stevenson said the agreement with Orion and RCF was a major step forward, especially considering the current financial markets.

“The Financing provides over 75% of the overall financing requirement, which is a strong achievement in the current financial market,” Mr Stevenson said in a company statement

Armenian PM Hovik Abrahamyan also said the government was pleased Lydian had won backing for the project.

“The financing of the construction of the Amulsar Mine represents a significant step forward in the development of the mining industry in Armenia,” Mr Abrahamyan said in a statement.

Gold is an important cash earner for the Armenian government but although potentially lucrative for the state, the project has angered people who worry about the environmental degradation. In 2014, police dispersed a large crowd of protesters around the mine.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 259, published on Dec. 4 2015)

Armenian gold project go-ahead

DEC. 1 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – Toronto-listed Lydian International said it had secured the $325m finance needed to exploit a major gold deposit in Armenia. The deposit at Amulsar could transform Armenia’s economy.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 259, published on Dec. 4 2015)

EBRD to boost activity in Armenia

DEC. 2 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) said that its priorities in Armenia over the next four years would be to improve small business competitiveness, develop local capital markets and improve public utilities. The EBRD is a major investor in Armenia with over $1b worth of investments.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 259, published on Dec. 4 2015)

Armenians prepare to vote in constitutional referendum

DEC. 4 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – Armenia prepared to vote in a referendum which would change the constitution to give the PM more authority in a move that opposition groups have said is designed to strengthen President Serzh Sargsyan’s grip on power.

The debate over the constitution has triggered mass public protests with an estimated 3,000 people marching through Yerevan on Dec. 1 to protest against the referendum set for Dec. 6

The demonstrators said that the proposed changes were a scam to hand Mr Sargsyan more power when he leaves the presidency at the end of his final two year term in 2018.

Mr Sargsyan and his party have said that he has no plans to become PM once he quits as president.

Instead he has argued that the current system of split responsibilities between the PM and the president could create a weakness in emergencies.

Opinion polls in the run-up to the vote said it would be close with, perhaps, those who said they would vote for the changes marginally ahead.

Georgia and Kyrgyzstan have already shifted power away from their presidents to parliament and the PM. Each said the changes were needed to modernise their political systems.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 259, published on Dec. 4 2015)

Rosneft buys into Armenia

NOV. 25 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) — Rosneft, the Russian oil and gas company, bought Armenia’s Petrol Market chain of petrol stations for $40m, media reported, extending Russian influence over the country. Media reported that the deal was made in August but only reported now.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 258, published on Nov. 27 2015)

Qatar Airways flies to Armenia

NOV. 24 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) — Qatar Airways, the flagship carrier in Qatar, will open a new route to and from Armenia. The Yerevan- Doha-Yerevan connection will begin operations in 2016 and ensure an air link between Armenia and the Persian Gulf region after UAE’s Etihad pulled out of the country in April.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 258, published on Nov. 27 2015)

Armenia’s and Azerbaijan’s presidents to meet on Karabakh

NOV. 24 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – Azerbaijani president Ilham Aliyev and Armenian president Serzh Sargsyan will meet in Paris on Dec. 1 to discuss their cease-fire over the disputed region of Nagorno-Karabakh, media reported.

The two countries are still officially at war over Nagorno-Karabakh and meetings between the two leaders are rare. Their last meeting was also in Paris in 2014.

Armenian-backed rebels control Nagorno-Karabakh but there are constant skirmishes that kill soldiers almost every week. Over the past few years tension over the region has ebbed and flowed, sometimes threatening to spill over into all-out war.

Earlier this month, the Azerbaijani ministry of defence said that its forces had killed two ethnic Armenian fighters. The Armenian government confirmed this and said that two of its soldiers had been killed by an Azerbaijanji sniper.

At previous meetings between Mr Aliyev and Mr Sargsyan, these normally take place in Paris or Moscow, there have been warm words and friendly photo-ops but no lasting moves to bring about a permanent peace to the region.

Only a 1994 UN-brokered cease- fire maintains a shaky peace. The war killed an estimated 30,000 people and created thousands of refugees.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 258, published on Nov. 27 2015)

Armenian economic activity increases

NOV. 20 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – Economic activity in Armenia increased by 3.5% in the first 10 months of the year compared to the same period in 2014, media reported by quoting the statistics agency. The statistics agency also said that salaries had increased by over 9% during the same period, a reflection of the drop in the value of Armenia’s dram currency.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 258, published on Nov. 27 2015)

Air Armenia bankrupts

NOV. 26 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – Air Armenia, the national flag carrier, lost its appeal against a bankruptcy order.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 258, published on Nov. 27 2015)

Air Armenia loses bankruptcy order appeal

NOV. 26 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) — An appeals court in Armenia upheld a bankruptcy order against Air Armenia, dealing a major blow to the national flag carrier’s chances of survival.

Earlier this month a court declared Air Armenia bankrupt because it owed HSBC Armenia over 2m euro.

After losing an appeal against the bankruptcy order, Arsen Averisyan, majority owner of Air Armenia, said he would be able to pay back the loan once he had cashed in various assets.

“We can’t cash these bonds now, but if creditors uphold the recovery program, then we will remain in the market. We have 50 days,” he said.

Until 2013, Air Armenia had only flown cargo flights. After the bankruptcy of Armavia, though, it stepped into the gap and started up an ambitious network of passenger routes from Yerevan to various Russian cities, Paris, Frankfurt and Athens.

Mr Averisyan wanted to adopt the Armenian national livery and become its biggest and most important airline.

But Air Armenia’s timing was poor. The same year that Air Armenia started its passenger operation, the Armenian government liberalised air routes in and out of the country. This increased competition and drove down prices. The price of tickets on the most important routes between Yerevan and Moscow and St Petersburg plunged.

Opposition politicians have blamed the liberalisation for pushing Air Armenia into bankruptcy.

After only one year of flying passenger routes, Air Armenia stopped flights altogether.

It was handed a lifeline earlier in August when a deal was agreed with East Prospect Fund, a Ukrainian company registered in the British Virgin Islands, to buy a 49% stake in the company for $68.6m.

This cash injection, though, was clearly not enough to pay off Air Armenia’s debts. Air Armenia’s needs another deal if it is to survive.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 258, published on Nov. 27 2015)