Anglo Asian Mining planning exploration of minerals in Azerbaijan's Gedabek
By Trend
Anglo Asian Mining plc, the AIM-listed gold, copper and silver producer, is pleased to announce updated Mineral Resources and Ore Reserves, estimated following the JORC (2012) code, for the Gedabek open pit and Gadir underground mine located at the Company's Gedabek license area in Western Azerbaijan, Trend reports citing the company.
The Mineral Resources and Ore Reserves estimates have been prepared by the independent company Mining Plus UK Limited and are based on robust geological models, which benefit from information gathered during the mining of the deposits, recent geological work, and exploration drilling. The Company also announces an update for its Ugur open pit Mine.
Anglo Asian CEO, Reza Vaziri, said "I am delighted to announce these latest JORC estimates for the Gedabek open pit and Gadir underground mines. These show the economically mineable Ore Reserves remaining in the open-pit mine amount to 284,000 ounces of gold and 26,000 tonnes of copper. The economically mineable Ore Reserves for the Gadir underground mine amount to 49,000 ounces of gold and 191 tonnes of copper.
"The mine life of the new model is a further eight years assuming the current mining rate from the open pit, however, the company is carrying out a study to see if part of this ore can also be mined more efficiently by underground mining. Our ongoing exploration program targeting five new deposits is also expected to produce additional ore sources to further complement the production from the Gedabek open pit and the Gadir underground mines."
Anglo Asian Group Director of Geology & Mining, Stephen Westhead, said "These latest resources and reserves statements and the extensive geological and mining work supporting them provide the production platform to develop a long-term operational strategy. Gedabek ore production will be supplemented by the mining of the Gadir underground reserve, stockpile inventory, and potential new deposits. The ongoing underground development will provide the technical data to optimize the open pit and underground production profile to maximize cash flow. Exploration results from the rest of the Gedabek contract area are delivering "mineable" grades and there is a focus on drilling the areas of known mineralization to assess continuity for resource estimation to further prolong mine life, within an extended Production Sharing Agreement."
The current mine life of the Gedabek open pit, based on the mining schedule used for its Ore Reserves estimation, is now eight years. The mining schedule assumes a continuation of the current mining practices used in the Gedabek open pit. However, such a mining schedule results in a spare capacity of the current processing facilities which can be used to treat additional sources of ore. Ore production from the Gedabek Open-pit will also be supplemented by stockpile material and ore mined from the Gadir underground mine to increase utilization of the processing facilities.
The Company is also assessing the underground mining of part of the existing Gedabek Open Pit Mineral Resources and Ore Reserves. This is to determine whether underground mining of this ore will be more economic and better match the requirements of the processing facilities. Underground tunneling is currently being developed from the south below the Gedabek open pit. This will soon link with the tunnel being developed from Gadir at the northern end of Gedabek. The continuous tunneling will allow for the additional assessment of ore extraction from underground as well as the exploration of the deeper extensions of mineralization. Only the upper level of mineralization is currently contained within the new open pit Ore Reserves, and a study is now being carried out to look at the benefits of open pit versus underground mining and scheduling. The positive impact of underground extraction is likely to be the avoidance of significant waste rock removal required by the open pit extraction plan, thus improving the mining economics and potential for additional Mineral Resources and Ore Reserves.
Further exploration is planned for the extensive deeper mineralization already identified below the current Gedabek Mineral Resources. The objective is to increase the size of Mineral Resources to develop future additional underground Ore Reserves.
Furthermore, if any of the Company's exploration targets are developed into mines, ore from these sources can also be used to ensure processing plants are fully utilized, with the option of further expansion of the facilities.
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