For the second time this year Lydian International (LYD-T) has shown the benefits of taking on some geopolitical risk.
In March, Lydian defined a 1-million-ounce gold resource at its Amulsar project in Armenia; now it has proven up an initial resource at its Drazhnje zinc-lead project in Kosovo.
This first Drazhnje resource is based on only 20 core holes and 120 metres of underground channel sampling, combined with historical data, and the resource is open in all directions.
For now, the inferred count stands at 3.21 million tonnes grading 5.11% zinc and 2.51% lead.
Lydian's drill cores from Drazhnje also returned promising gold and silver grades alongside the lead and zinc, such as 13.2 metres of 11.12% zinc, 6.39% lead, 102.1 grams silver per tonne, and 0.56 gram gold, but the gold and silver data from historic samples do not meet the requirements of National Instrument 43-101 regulations so the precious metals were excluded from the initial resource.
Lydian has been rehabilitating underground exploration workings at Drazhnje, which allowed for some underground sampling.
The rehabilitation effort continues and the company will soon be ready to start underground drilling. The first exploration targets are mineralized extensions immediately beneath and along strike from the resource.
Lydian then plans to probe the untested lead-zinc surface geochemical anomalies that lie west and south of the main deposit.
Trenches in an area known as Trpeza, which lies 2 km along strike to the north, have returned significant gold grades, such as 51 metres averaging 1.3 grams.
A cursory drilling effort at Trpeza returned 17 metres grading 1.3 grams gold from surface in oxide material. The company will return to the area with drill rigs.
Lydian wants to define a 10-million tonne resource at Drazhnje. If it can, the company will consider mining the deposit and transporting the ore to a nearby concentrator instead of building one.
Lydian is also exploring the Amulsar gold project in southern Armenia, a grassroots discovery that was staked about two years ago.
An initial estimate pegged the project's resources at 31 million tonnes grading 1 gram gold; the mineralization starts at or near surface and is entirely oxide.
Lydian's share price remained unchanged on news of the Drazhnje resource at $0.64. The company has a 52-week trading range of $0.11 to $0.88 and has 47 million shares outstanding.
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