Lydian International Ltd. has announced that its 100% owned Georgian subsidiary Georgian Resource Company LLC has been awarded a combined exploration and mining license with a 40-year term over an area of gold mineralization with indications of historic underground exploration activity in the Guria province of western Georgia.
The Dzoti project was rediscovered by Lydian geologists during reconnaissance exploration in 2010. Initial project-scale mapping and sampling has returned anomalous gold-only grab sample results of 1g/t to 4g/t gold over a strike distance of 2km and from numerous sub-parallel fault zones and hydrothermal breccia veins located structurally below an interpreted silica-cap. These faults are located adjacent to a pophyritic, pyrite-sericite altered quartz-diorite intrusion which returned anomalous gold values of up to 0.3 g/t gold in grab samples.
Georgia ranks 12th out of 183 economies on the World Bank's Ease of Doing Business Index ahead of most European countries and just below Canada which ranks 7th. Georgia is a member of the World Trade Organization, a signatory to the International Convention for the Settlement of Investment Disputes and is 68th on Transparency Internationals Corruption Index (ahead of Brazil, Colombia and Peru). Corporate tax in Georgia is 15% and a royalty on resource depletion is levied at 0.9 Georgian Lari (GEL) per gram of gold which equates to approximately 1.4%.
Lydian's Dzoti License conditions require submission of an Environmental Impact Assessment and interim report on potential resources within 24 months.
"Lydian has had Georgia in its sights since early 2006 and has conducted various in-country investment and geological reviews" said Tim Coughlin, Lydian's President and CEO "The country is considered highly prospective for gold and has entered a period of committed reform and rapid growth. Georgia's young and energetic government is actively seeking and supporting direct foreign investment. We see our acquisition of the Dzoti license as the start of Lydian's exploration and mining activities in Georgia".
Source: www.lydianinternational.co.uk