Gold producer outlines development plans for Ordubad deposit in Nakhchivan
By Nigar Orujova
Anglo Asian Mining, a company extracting precious metals in resource-rich Azerbaijan, has submitted its development and production program for the Ordubad deposit to the Ecology and Natural Resources Ministry, the company said September 26.
The deposit was discovered at a 462 square meter Ordubad contract area in the Nakhchivan Autonomous Republic in early 2012, the company told the ministry in May of the same year.
The field was discovered during exploration work carried out by the company on the territories of the Piyazbashi and Agyurt deposits, near the Ordubad city, in 2010-2011. The company plans to continue the exploration work in an effort to reveal greater mineral reserve potential in the area.
As of June 30, 2013, the company spent $2.78 million on exploration operations at the deposit.
The company now plans to conduct further exploration to confirm the availability of a gold deposit with a small production potential.
Earlier Anglo Asian Mining head Reza Vaziri said the company expects to extract its first gold in Ordubad in 2014.
Since 2009, the company has produced gold at the Gadabay deposit and plans to start production at the Gosha deposit this year.
The company also announced its interim results for the first half of 2013.
According to Non-Executive Chairman Khosrow Zamani, the company expects to produce 42,500 ounces of gold in the second part of the year, with the full-year target being 60,000 ounces.
Gold production from Gadabay totalled 17,497 ounces in this period. Of this volume, 15,039 ounces of gold and 9,999 ounces of silver came from original heap leaching operations.
Gold sales in the reporting period totalled 14,229 ounces at an average sales price of $1,561 per ounce.
A new agitation leaching plant at Gadabay, which started production in June, in the first few weeks of production delivered 2,458 ounces, which equaled 14 percent of the total gold production in this period.
Afterwards, the new plant continued to perform well and in August the highest monthly gold production was reported at the Gadabay mine since it first produced gold in May 2009, with 7,600 ounces produced in one month. The company is developing a plan to expand gold production in the future.
The company also expects to raise the next year target to 80,000-90,000 ounces of gold by launching the second mining project, Gosha, which is expected to produce first gold in 2014.
Anglo Asian Mining, a cash generative and profitable gold and copper mining and exploration company, started gold and silver production in May 2009 and copper concentrate production in 2010 at the Gadabay mine.
In 2012, the company produced 50,215 ounces of gold, 20,133 ounces of silver and 502 tons of copper from the Gadabay field.
The company has the rights to develop six deposits in the south-west of Azerbaijan -- Gadabay, Ordubad, Gosha Bulag, Gyzyl Bulag, Vezhnali and Soyutlu, under a production sharing agreement signed in August 1997 with Azerbaijan's government.