Anglo Asian announces production guidance as it raises tailings capacity

22nd Aug 2024 12:25

(Sharecast News) - Azerbaijan-focussed gold, copper and silver producer Anglo Asian Mining announced its production guidance for the full year on Thursday.

The AIM-traded company forecast production of between 15,000 and 19,500 gold equivalent ounces, consisting of 250 to 850 tonnes of copper and 14,000 to 16,000 ounces of gold.

Its guidance followed the recent authorization on 5 August to raise the wall of its tailings dam - a crucial step for enhancing production capacity.

Work on raising the dam wall started immediately, and was progressing as planned, with the first 2.5-metre raise expected to be completed within three months.

Anglo Asian said it had also made significant progress in refurbishing its agitation leaching plant over the last year.

After extensive maintenance and testing, the plant was scheduled to restart full production in mid-September, beginning with the processing of 97,000 tonnes of stockpiled ore.

Additionally, the company's flotation plant was set to resume operations in November, independently processing fresh ore from the existing open pit.

Looking ahead, the company anticipated beginning ore extraction from the Gilar deposit in December.

The initial plan would involve processing between 35,000 and 40,000 tonnes of ore with an average grade of 1.6 grams of gold per tonne and 2% copper.

It said the agitation leaching plant would be reconfigured to process Gilar ore, with tailings further processed by flotation to produce copper.

"We are pleased to provide guidance for this year of between 15,000 and 19,500 gold equivalent ounces as we return to full production and regular operations after receiving authorisation to raise the tailings dam wall," said chief executive officer Reza Vaziri.

"The tailings dam wall raise is progressing well, and we expect the first stage to be completed within the next three months."

Vaziri said the company used the period of a partial shut-down of production well.

"In addition to extensive overhaul and refurbishment of our existing processing operations, we have completed extensive preparatory work that will enable us to deliver our strategic growth plan to become a multi-asset, mid-tier primarily copper producer."

At 1146 BST, shares in Anglo Asian Mining were up 1.7% at 86.44p.

Reporting by Josh White for Sharecast.com.