Azerbaijan, Baku, May 7 / Trend, N.Ismayilova /
The Azerbaijani Government and the Central Bank are interested in creating gold currency reserves, Central Bank of Azerbaijan (CBA) Chairman Elman Rustamov said.
"The CBA and Government's position is to preserve gold, mined in the Azerbaijani field in the country by including it in strategic currency reserves," Rustamov said.
According to him, in terms of diversification of currency reserves, the establishment of gold reserves would also be interesting. From a fundamental point of view, as any kind of backup, gold is also currency, and freely convertible, that is, constant purchase operations can be held with gold.
"As any government we should also think about efficiency of currency reserves in the future. At present, the CBA and Government's position is to establish some gold reserves," he said.
In 2009, strategic currency reserves increased to $3 billion, surpassing $ 20 billion, but now they exceed $ 22 billion.
Official currency reserves of the Central Bank of Azerbaijan as of the first quarter of 2010 amounted to $5.510 billion. This figure increased by 6.7 percent or $348.3 million compared to early 2010.
Anglo-Asian Mining has the right to develop six fields in southwest Azerbaijan - Gadabay, Ordubad, Gosha Bulag, Gizil Bulag, Vejnali and Soyutlu - based on agreements signed with the Azerbaijani government in the PSA format in August 1997. The PSA was signed between the Azerbaijani government and the Azerbaijan International Mineral Resources Operating Company (for 30 years. Azerbaijan's share is 51 percent, and Anglo-Asian Mining's is 49 percent.
The first gold and the silver were extracted at the mine Gedabey May 2009. In general, before 2015 at the mine Gedabey it is planned to mine over 300,000 ounces of gold. At present, the amount of production, started in July 2009 reached 25,022 ounces.