President and CEO of Lydian International Howard Stevenson said that the operation will contribute an estimated USD 488 million directly to the state budget through taxes and royalties over the life of the mine.

Howard Stevenson stated it during his speech at EBRD Annual Meeting and Business Forum held in Tbilisi on May 14-15.

“The economic impact of investment in mining could be significant. The direct impact of the Amulsar project on GDP, based on calculations by an independent expert group and our current feasibility study, will be as high as USD 120 million annually. The operation will contribute an estimated USD 488 million directly to the state budget through taxes and royalties over the life of the mine, with about an additional USD 156 million in taxes generated indirectly from other business activities generated by the project. We expect to be among top 5 corporate taxpayers in the country when we start production,” said Howard Stevenson.

Howard Stevenson emphasized the role of EBRD and other International IFIs in raising the bar for environmental and social standards in mining in developing countries.   

“World class policies and practices in the areas of Health and Safety, Environmental Responsibility and Stakeholder Engagement, will be critical to sustaining a conducive legal, regulatory, and social climate for long term investments in exploration and mine development.  These include compliance with the EBRD Performance Requirements as well as with the standards of other multilateral agencies. Encouraging signals from the Government about signing up to the Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative are a further step in the right direction,” said the President of Lydian.

In his address, Mr. Stevenson emphasized the importance of modernization of the mining industry in Armenia and building trust.

“With many of the operations having been developed during the Soviet period, there are substantial legacy issues around Health and Safety for the workers in the mines, relationships with local communities and environmental stewardship.  Practices today are quite mixed and public trust of mining companies is very low.  Due to this low level of public trust, it has been a sometimes difficult path for Lydian to raise the debate about mining to a new level and we have certainly had our ups and downs in engaging with all stakeholders,” added Howard Stevenson.

According to him, Lydian has put considerable effort into building its reputation as a responsible company among many constituencies, bringing a new behavioral culture to the industry in the country.

“There is still great room for improvement in industry practice inside the country and we believe investments like Amulsar will be key to raising the bar,” stressed Howard Stevenson.

In 2014 EBRD invested around USD 9 billion in more than 30 countries of operations, fostering economic development project in developing countries, including Armenia.  

“Encouraging and fostering entrepreneurship has been at the heart of the EBRD’s activities from the start. Our mandate has a very clear private sector commitment because we see it as the driving force of the kind of economy we believe serves societies best. At a time of geopolitical tensions and economic uncertainty, the Bank can be a bridge-builder and integrator,” said EBRD President Sir Suma Chakrabarty during his speech.