Reza Vaziri: By 2028, Azerbaijan to reach average level of copper, gold production

The British company Anglo-Asian Mining Plc, which extracts gold, silver and copper in Azerbaijan, produced 10,969 ounces of gold equivalent in the first quarter of 2023, Report informs referring to the company.

Gold production decreased by 32.9% year-on-year to 6,741 ounces, silver production decreased by 2.25 times to 22,566 ounces and copper production increased by 49% to 847 tons.

As of March 31, Anglo-Asian Mining had $10.7 million in cash in the bank and $9.6 million in inventories (1,822 ounces of gold worth $3.6 million and copper concentrate for $6 million).

The capital expenditure on prepayments for the underground mining fleet and a generator was $1.5 million.

In addition, in early March, Anglo Asian entered into a $33 million seven-year revolving loan with the International Bank of Azerbaijan to provide both additional funding and operational flexibility for expansion.

The company is slated to become a mid-tier copper and gold producer with multiple assets by 2028.

“I am pleased to report a strong start to 2023, with a total production of 10,969 gold equivalent ounces in the first quarter at our flagship Gedabek contract area. We continue to make good progress towards production at Gilar, followed by Zafar. We remain in a strong financial position to deliver both our near-term priorities and our recently announced long-term growth strategy to achieve mid-tier copper and gold production status by 2028,” Anglo Asian CEO Reza Vaziri said.

He added that the company’s strong financial position allows it to implement both short-term priorities and the recently announced long-term growth strategy and achieve an average level of copper and gold production by 2028.

The company expects a 30-50% increase in total production, which will be between 70,000 and 75,000 gold equivalent ounces in 2024 and 2025 (15,000 to 15,500 tons of copper equivalent). Copper equivalent production will increase to around 36,000 tons per year (175,000 gold equivalent ounces) from 2028.