2019 Production Guidance

RNS Number : 2976P

Anglo Asian Mining PLC

07 February 2019

 

Anglo Asian Mining plc / Ticker: AAZ / Index: AIM / Sector: Mining

7 February 2019

Anglo Asian Mining plc

Production Guidance for Full Year 2019

Full Year 2019 Metal Production Guidance of 82,000 to 86,000 Gold Equivalent Ounces Building on Record 2018 Production

Anglo Asian Mining plc ("Anglo Asian" or the "Company"), the AIM listed gold, copper and silver producer focused in Azerbaijan, is pleased to announce its highest ever production guidance for the year ended 31 December 2019 ("FY 2019").

Overview

·    Forecast metal production for FY 2019 of between 82,000 to 86,000 gold equivalent ounces ("GEOs") compared to FY 2018 production of 83,736 GEOs (2018 production guidance of 78,000 to 84,000 GEOs)

·    Forecast production for FY 2019 of between 65,000 to 67,500 ounces of gold (FY 2018: 72,798 ounces of gold produced) and between 3,100 to 3,300 tonnes of copper (FY 2018: 1,645 tonnes of copper produced)

·    Increase in copper production during 2019 resulting from a full year stand-alone operation of the flotation plant offset by lower gold grades of ore processed by the agitation leaching plant

·    Between 28,000 to 30,000 GEOs of FY 2019 production in the form of copper and gold concentrate compared FY 2018 production of 17,791 GEOs

Anglo Asian CEO Reza Vaziri commented, "2019 will be another year of delivery for Anglo Asian with total metal production of between 82,000 to 86,000 gold equivalent ounces planned by our operations team. This demonstrates the sustainability of our business and builds on our record production of 83,736 gold equivalent ounces in 2018. The increasing proportion of our production as copper and gold in concentrate also highlights the versatility of our processing operations.

"One critical pillar underpinning the future growth of the Company is our ongoing exploration and development programme. Two important elements of this programme are the results of the helicopter survey and the publication of the JORC mineral resource for Gardir, our underground mine which is already in production. These are both expected to be announced in this current quarter and should further demonstrate the expansion potential of the Gedabek Contract Area."

Assumptions

The production guidance has been calculated using the following budgeted metal prices for 2019:

-     Gold: $1,250 per ounce

-     Silver: $15 per ounce

-     Copper: $6,100 per tonne 

The production guidance is for 100 per cent. of the Company's production which will be subject to an expected 12.75 per cent. production share throughout 2019 with the Government of Azerbaijan under the Company's existing production sharing agreement.

Market Abuse Regulation (MAR) Disclosure

Certain information contained in this announcement would have been deemed inside information for the purposes of Article 7 of Regulation (EU) No 596/2014 until the release of this announcement.

**ENDS**

For further information please visit www.angloasianmining.com or contact:

Reza Vaziri	Anglo Asian Mining plc	Tel: [phone]
Bill Morgan	Anglo Asian Mining plc	Tel: [phone]
Stephen Westhead	Anglo Asian Mining plc	Tel: [phone]
Ewan Leggat	SP Angel Corporate Finance LLP Nominated Adviser and Broker	Tel: [phone]
Soltan Tagiev	SP Angel Corporate Finance LLP	Tel + 44 (0) 20 3470 0470
Susie Geliher	St Brides Partners Ltd	Tel: [phone]
Gaby Jenner	St Brides Partners Ltd	Tel: [phone]

Notes:

Anglo Asian Mining plc (AIM:AAZ) is a gold, copper and silver producer in Central Asia with a broad portfolio of production and exploration assets in Azerbaijan. The Company has a 1,962 square kilometre portfolio, assembled from analysis of historic Soviet geological data and held under a Production Sharing Agreement modelled on the Azeri oil industry.

The Company's main operating location is the Gedabek contract area ("Gedabek") which is a 300 square kilometre area in the lesser Caucasus mountains in western Azerbaijan. The Company developed Azerbaijan's first operating gold/copper/silver mine at Gedabek which commenced gold production in May 2009.  Mining at Gedabek was initially from its main open pit, which is an open cast mine with a series of interconnected pits. The Company also operates the high grade Gadir underground mine, which is co-located at the Gedabek site. In September 2017, production commenced at the Ugur open pit mine, a recently discovered gold ore deposit at Gedabek. The Company has a second underground mine, Gosha, which is 50 kilometres from Gedabek. Ore mined at Gosha is processed at Anglo Asian's Gedabek plant.

The Company produced 83,736 gold equivalent ounces ('GEOs') for the year ended 31 December 2018.  Gedabek is a polymetallic ore deposit that has gold together with significant concentrations of copper in the main open pit mine, and an oxide gold-rich zone at Ugur. The Company therefore employs a series of flexible processing routes to optimise metal recoveries and efficiencies.  The Company produces gold doré through agitation and heap leaching operations, copper concentrate from its Sulphidisation, Acidification, Recycling, and Thickening (SART) plant and also a copper and precious metal concentrate from its flotation plant. A second dedicated crusher line has been commissioned and is now in operation for the flotation plant to enable it to operate independently of the agitation leaching plant.

Anglo Asian is also actively seeking to exploit its first mover advantage in Azerbaijan to identify additional projects, as well as looking for other properties in order to fulfil its expansion ambitions and become a mid-tier gold and copper metal production company. 

 

END

 

 

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