Lydian International Ltd., a diversified U.K. mineral exploration and development company, today announced it has signed a 20,000 metre combined reverse circulation and diamond drilling contract to test the bulk tonnage potential and define a gold resource at its Amulsar project in Armenia. The programme will commence in April of 2008 after the snow retreats and is expected to be complete by the end of October 2008.

Amulsar is a high-sulphidation type epithermal gold project located in central Armenia. The gold bearing potential of the project was identified by Lydian in mid-2006. Rock-chip sampling and soil geochemical analyses reveal that the mineralised system extends over a strike length of some 3.5km and is at least 500 metres wide. Scout drilling has revealed that higher grade gold is hosted in steeply dipping oxidised breccia bodies, and that lower grade gold is hosted in shallowly dipping oxidised structures that surround the higher grade breccia bodies. Previously reported drilling results have been recalculated to reflect a bulk tonnage mining scenario in which the breccia bodies and bedding parallel bodies are combined. In this case best intersections are DDA-004, 53m at 2.6g/t gold and DDA-003 51m at 1.02g/t gold (Table 1).

“Planning for this drill programme has been underway for several months now, camp infrastructure including an on-site sample preparation laboratory has been procured and will be installed on the project just as soon as the snow allows us access,” said Tim Coughlin, President and CEO of Lydian. “The drill rigs arrive in the middle of March and we are expecting the first drill results some time in April”.

The Amulsar license is 95% owned by Lydian’s wholly owned Armenian subsidiary (Geoteam CJSC) and 5% owned by that Company’s local director. The project is currently being explored as part of a joint venture with Newmont Overseas Exploration Limited, a wholly owned subsidiary of Newmont Mining Corporation (NYSE & ASX: NEM; TSX: NMC). The joint venture is a 50%-50% contribution. Newmont has two options to increase its interest. The first is an option to earn a further 20% by funding the project through to feasibility; the second option allows Newmont to earn a further 10% by funding through to commercial production.