Azernews.Az

Azerbaijan has produced more than 3 tons of gold since 2009 and has become a gold-mining country, Ecology and Natural Resources Minister Huseyngulu Bagirov has said in an article published by official media Friday.

He said Gadabay copper and gold deposit's reserves have been re-evaluated.

"Whereas its reserves were earlier estimated at 4,790 tons of copper, 6.061 tons of gold and 71.96 tons of silver, they are now said to be 37,000 tons, 23 tons and 190 tons respectively," Bagirov said.

He said the field's reserves are operated by the RV Investment company.

Recoverable reserves of Chovdar gold deposit in Dashkasan ore region are estimated at 44.61 tons of gold and 164.25 tons of silver, Bagirov said.

"Londex Resources company is conducting exploration work on this deposit," he said.

Also, according to preliminary estimates, gold reserves of 360 tons and silver reserves of 1,120 tons are forecast on an area of 400 square meters in the south of Goranboy and Goygol administrative regions.

In addition, Bagirov said, radioactive elements and platinum group elements were revealed as a result of nuclear geodetic studies on an area of 4 square kilometers in the southeast of Goygol.

"Without other platinum group elements, platinum resources in this area are estimated at about 50-100 tons," Bagirov said.

The only gold producer in Azerbaijan, Anglo Asian Mining Plc, produced 41,770 ounces of gold at Azerbaijan’s first operating gold and copper mine, Gadabay, since the beginning of the year.

Reza Veziri, president of Anglo Asian Mining, expressed confidence that the company will achieve its production target of 58,000 to 60,000 ozs of gold in 2011.

"With this in mind, we remain highly active in developing and implementing efficiency initiatives which we believe will ensure the future production growth and success of our flagship project."

Gold was first discovered in Gadabay in May 2009. More than 300,000 ounces of gold are to be produced from this field by 2015.

The Azerbaijani government and Anglo Asian Mining signed a production sharing agreement in 1997 to tap the country’s gold deposits. The PSA, in which the government holds a 51 percent stake, covers six deposits. The fields hold about 400 tons of gold, 2,500 tons of silver and 1.5 million tons of copper.