Anglo Asian Mining plc ("Anglo Asian" or the "Company"), the AIM-listed gold, copper, and silver producer primarily focused in Azerbaijan, is pleased to announce the acquisition of exploration data and associated studies and reports from AzerGold, Report informs, citing the Company.
The data relate to the Garadagh and Xarxar contract areas ("Contract Areas"), two of Anglo Asian's new concessions, which were granted to the Company following the recently received parliamentary ratification, with AzerGold having been the previous concession holder.
The acquisition of these Contract Areas is transformational for Anglo Asian and underpins its strategic objective to transition into a copper-focused mining company with mid-tier production status. It also allows the Company to complete its 3 to 5-year development plan.
The data acquired includes geochemical and geophysical data, including maps and interpretative reports. Substantial core drilling and data interpretation have been carried out for the Contract Areas by Azergold and include 9,645 chemical assays taken from 23,454 metres of Garadagh drill core and 805 assays taken from 4,923 metres of Xarxar drill core. Anglo Asian will also receive an initial mining scoping study for Garadagh based on a preliminary mineral resource estimate with various options for mine development, including open pit designs, initial mining schedules, and an outline metallurgical flow sheet. An environmental and socio-economic baseline assessment has also been carried out at Garadagh and is included in the material.
Anglo Asian has agreed to pay US$3.3 million for the data for Garadagh and US$0.7 million for Xarxar. 25 per cent of the fees (US$1.0 million) is payable immediately, with a further 75 per cent. (US$3.0 million) payable after three years, or if earlier for each respective deposit, the balance of the purchase price on the approval of the Company's development and production programme for the deposit in accordance with the Company's Production Sharing Agreement. The cost of the data will be added to the operating and capital costs of the Contract Areas and be deductible in calculating profit production.