Azerbaijan, Baku, June 5 / Trend, E. Aliyev /
A plant for vat leaching has been put into operation at the large Gedabey gold deposit in the west of the country, according to the message of the Anglo-Asian Mining PLC, gold producer in Azerbaijan,published on its website on Wednesday.
"The first batch of gold produced at the plant will be available within 48 hours from the time of commissioning," the statement says.
The plant will process rich ore and reserves not suitable for heap leaching, which is a method for obtaining gold from the ore currently used in the field. Vat leaching technology allows extracting over 90 percent of the gold contained in the ore, whereas for heap leaching this figure stands at nearly 70 percent.
According to preliminary estimates, the gold recovery at the plant is expected to reach 85 percent from oxide ore and 69 percent - from sulfide. However, the company continues to conduct tests to improve these indicators. The new plant is designed to process 100 tons of ore per hour.
According to the company's head Reza Vaziri, due to the launch of the new enterprise, the company plans to increase gold production to 60,000 ounces in 2013, which is 20 percent more than in 2012.
"In addition, we plan to reduce production costs to $500 per ounce of gold, which will set us apart from other companies," Vaziri said.
In 2012, the company produced 50,215 ounces of gold, 20,133 ounces of silver and 502 tons of copper from the Gedabey field.
Under the terms of the Production Sharing Agreement (PSA) with the Government of Azerbaijan, the Anglo Asian Mining has rights for exploration and extraction of mineral resources in an area of about two square kilometers, consisting of three contract area (Gosh, Gedabey and Ordubad ).
The company's resource base exceeds 36 tons of gold, 292 tons of silver and 94,000 tons of copper. The largest of the fields developed by the Anglo Asian Mining is the Gedabey complex mine. The first gold and silver were mined there in May 2009, while production of copper concentrate began in 2010.