The Administrative Court of Armenia has ruled in favour of Lydian Armenia, a subsidiary of TSX-listed Lydian International, and upheld the company’s appeal against a directive of the environmental and mining inspection body, which had blocked mining at the Amulsar site.

Former head of the inspection body, Artur Grigoryan, directed Lydian on August 27, 2018, to refrain from any mining-related activities until the Ministry of Nature Protection had conducted a study of “newfound ecological factors”, which he alleged had been identified at the Amulsar project for the first time.

According to a Lydian statement this week, the Administrative Court of Armenia established that the existence of the alleged ecological factors had not been substantiated after independent investigation.

The court also found that Grigoryan had been actively involved in anti-Amulsar activities prior to his appointment as the head of the inspection body, which it said “raised reasonable doubts on his objectivity”.  

The court further ruled that Grigoryan failed to recuse himself from considering the matter when required to do so and declared the directive invalid.

According to Lydian interim president and CEO Edward Sellers, the ruling “is another confirmation that unlawful attempts have been made to interfere with Lydian’s legal right to develop and operate the Amulsar project”.

He added that the company was “confident” that the Armenian Judiciary would “confirm that the claims of the former head of the inspection body were unsubstantiated, and the failure to recuse himself in the matter unlawful”.

Further, Sellers pointed out that on August 19, Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan “publicly acknowledged that there is no legal basis on which the government of Armenia can prevent Lydian from advancing the Amulsar project and it is in the national interest that the Amulsar project proceed”.

He added that the Prime Minister also called for the illegal blockaders to open the roads and for Lydian’s access to the Amulsar project to be restored.