Lydian struggles with debt repayment and blockade

Senior lenders have agreed to extend Lydian International‘s (TSX: LYD) initial debt repayment by two weeks to August 31.

The extension follows an earlier two-week extension from July 31 to August 15.

Road blockades near its Amulsar gold project in Armenia have prevented the company and its contractors from entering the site since late June.

Prior to the blockade, Lydian had expected to pour its first gold in the fourth quarter.

“The illegal blockades will affect this schedule and the required capital to complete construction of the Amulsar gold project,” the company stated in a press release.

To mitigate costs, Lydian has idled construction contractors and served termination notices to 30% of the company’s workforce and will continue to implement cost reduction activities that it says will impact more than 1,300 employees and contractors.

Lydian notes it has not received enough support from Armenian government officials in resolving the blockade.

“It is unfortunate that the government has chosen not to enforce the law and remove the illegal blockades, but we will continue to make every effort to resolve this situation as quickly as possible,” Joao Carrelo, Lydian’s president and CEO, stated in a press release.

Amulsar contains 3.5 million measured and indicated ounces of gold and 1.3 million inferred ounces of gold.

The open-pit project is expected to produce an average of 225,000 ounces of gold over an initial ten-year mine life.