Azerbaijan, Baku, Oct.21 / Trend A.Akhundov /
Since 2009, Azerbaijan has produced more than 3 tons of gold, Ecology and Natural Resources Minister Huseyngulu Bagirov's article on official press says Friday.
"Azerbaijan has become one of the gold-mining countries. The country has produced more than 3 tons of gold since 2009," Bagirov said.
He said revaluation of Gadabek copper-gold deposit's reserves was carried out.
"If earlier it reserves were estimated at 4,790 tons of copper, 6,061 tons of gold and 71,960 of silver, now they are estimated at 37,000 tons of copper, 23,000 tons of gold and 190 tons of silver," Bagirov said.
He said the field's reserves are operated by the company RV INVESTMENT.
Recoverable reserves of Chovdar gold deposit in Dashkesan ore region are estimated at 44,61 tons of gold and 164,25 tons of silver, Bagirov said.
"Now the company Londex is conducting exploration work in this deposit," he said.
Also, according to preliminary forecasts, presence of gold reserves at 360 tons and silver at 1,120 tons is forecasted on an area of 400 square meters in the south of Goranboy and Goygol administrative regions.
In addition, Bagirov said, region radioactive elements and platinum group elements were revealed as a result of nuclear geodetic studies on an area of 4 square kilometers in the south-east of the Goygol.
"Without other platinum group elements, estimated platinum resources on this area are estimated at about 50-100 tons," Bagirov said.
The only gold producer in Azerbaijan, the Anglo Asian Mining Plc company produced 13,166 ounces ('oz') of gold at its Gedabek mine, which is 9.7 per cent less than late second quarter of 2011.
Total gold production reached 41,770 oz since the beginning of the year and in sales terms is the most buoyant price seen on the Anglo Asian markets reaching sales of 11,342 oz of gold at an average of $1,704 per oz for the three months to Sept.30, 2011.
The average price per ounce in the third quarter was 13.1 per cent more than the second quarter.
Anglo Asian CEO Reza Vazir said: "We remain confident that we will achieve our goal which is the production of 58,000 to 60,000 ozs of gold in 2011. With this in mind we remain highly active in developing and implementing efficiency initiatives which we believe will ensure the future production growth and success of our flagship project".
Anglo Asian Mining Plc owns the rights to develop six fields in south-west Azerbaijan at Gedabey, Ordubad, Gosha Bulag, Gizil Bulag, Vejnali and Soyutlu. The concession is based on PSA agreements signed with the Azerbaijani government in August 1997.
The PSA has signed an agreement with the Azerbaijani government and Azerbaijan International Mineral Resources Operating Co.Ltd (AIMROC) for 30 years where Azerbaijan's share is 51 per cent whilst Britain's Anglo-Asian Mining Plc is 49 per cent.
According to the contract, production plans aim to yield 400 tons of gold, 2,500 tons of silver, and 1.5 million tons of copper. Gold and silver were first discovered in Gedabek in May 2009. More than 300 million ounces of gold are planned to be produced from this field by 2015.