Swiss mining group to buy copper from Azerbaijan
By Nigar Orujova
A company that extracts precious metals in Azerbaijan signed a contract with a Geneva-based integrated trading, mining, and logistics group.
The Anglo-Asian Mining plc signed the three-year contract with Industrial Minerals SA, which will become its exclusive partner in selling the company's copper concentrate product from the Gadabay gold, copper, and silver mine in western Azerbaijan, the company reported on May 6.
The company produces copper in the form of a precipitated copper sulphide concentrate by-product, which also contains silver with commercial value and a small amount of gold, from its Sulphidisation, Acidification, Recycling, and Thickening plant at Gadabay.
Under the terms of the sales agreement, Industrial Minerals will purchase both dry and wet copper concentrates.
Anglo-Asian Mining has 75 tonnes of dry copper concentrate and 550 tonnes of wet copper concentrate stockpiles ready to sell, and Gadabay expects to exceed its target to produce 595 tonnes of copper this year.
Anglo Asian CEO Reza Vaziri said the exclusive sales contract with Industrial Minerals will increase the company's profitability.
"With record copper sales from Gadabay totalling $6.6 million in 2013, we are well placed to continue this trend in 2014. I look forward to updating the shareholders on copper production and sales and also gold production from Gadabay in the coming months," he said.
Developments at the company's second gold project Gosha, at which the first phase of gold production has started, will also materialize.
"We now have two production projects in the country, which together sees Anglo Asian's gold forecast between 62,000 and 67,000 ounce of gold for 2014," Vaziri said.
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.
The resource base of the company exceeds 36 tonnes of gold, 292 tonnes of silver and 94.000 tonnes of copper.