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RNS Number : 1510Q Anglo Asian Mining PLC 16 October 2023
16 October 2023
Anglo Asian Mining plc
Q3 and 9M 2023 Production and Operations review
Gedabek set to fully resume operations following environmental inspection
Gross cash of $10.8 million (net cash of $1.6 million) at 30 September 2023
Anglo Asian Mining plc ("Anglo Asian" or the "Company"), the AIM-listed gold,
copper and silver producer operating in Azerbaijan, provides a production,
sales and operations review for the three and nine months to 30 September 2023
("Q3 2023" and "9M 2023" respectively).
Operational update
· Flotation processing and agitation leaching have been suspended since
the beginning of August 2023
o Heap leaching continued throughout Q3 2023
o Environmental report by Micon International Co Limited ("Micon") released in
September 2023, showing no environmental contamination at Gedabek
o Formal protocol to restart operations now being agreed with the Government
of Azerbaijan
· Extensive plant maintenance carried out during Q3 2023
Production update
· Q3 2023 production of 5,295 gold equivalent ounces ("GEOs") (Q3 2022:
14,309 GEOs)
· 9M 2023 total production of 28,686 GEOs (9M 2022: 43,081 GEOs)
· Updated Full Year 2023 ("FY 2023") production guidance of 30,000 to
34,000 GEOs issued with the interim results
o Assumes no flotation and agitation leaching production for the rest of 2023
o Guidance will be updated if flotation and agitation production is restarted
before the end of the year
Cash and inventory update
· Net cash of $1.6 million at 30 September 2023 (30 June 2023: $9.6
million) with the following payments made in Q3 2023
o $4.6 million payment of final dividend for 2022
· Gross cash of $10.8 million at 30 September 2023
o $3.5 million loan drawn down from International Bank of Azerbaijan in early
July 2023
o $5.7 million loan drawn down from Access Bank in August 2023
· $10 million tranche drawn down from the International Bank of Azerbaijan
under the Company's revolving credit facility in early October 2023
· The Company had inventory at market value of $7.0 million at 30
September 2023 (gold and silver bullion of $5.9 million and copper
concentrate of $1.1 million)
· 1,000 ounces of gold bullion sold in Q3 2023 at an average price of
$1,959 per ounce under the gold hedging programmes yielding additional sales
revenue of $27,075
o Total gold bullion sales in Q3 2023 of 2,900 ounces at an average of $1,949
per ounce
Anglo Asian CEO Reza Vaziri commented:
"This was a challenging quarter for the Company with operations impacted by
the environmental inspection that was ordered by the Government of
Azerbaijan. Our focus was to fully cooperate with the government and ensure
the environmental inspection was carried out properly.
The inspection's findings highlighted areas for improvement regarding Company
response systems, resources and protocols. We are now working with the
government to ensure these issues are very quickly addressed. Nevertheless, we
were pleased that allegations of environmental contamination were proved to be
without merit with the report recognising the Company operates within accepted
high industry standards and guidelines. We look forward to updating the market
in due course regarding the resumption of agitation leaching and flotation
processing at Gedabek and progress against our stated growth strategy."
Market Abuse Regulation (MAR) Disclosure
Certain information contained in this announcement would have been deemed
inside information for the purposes of Article 7 of Regulation (EU) No
596/2014, which was incorporated into UK law by the European
Union (Withdrawal) Act 2018, until the release of this announcement.
For further information please contact:
Reza Vaziri Anglo Asian Mining plc Tel: +994 12 596 3350
Bill Morgan Anglo Asian Mining plc Tel: +994 502 910 400
Stephen Westhead Anglo Asian Mining plc Tel: +994 502 916 894
Ewan Leggat SP Angel Corporate Finance LLP Tel: +44 (0) 20 3470 0470
Adam Cowl Nominated Adviser and Broker
Charlie Jack Hudson Sandler Tel: +44(0) 20 7796 4133
Harry Griffiths
Notes:
Anglo Asian Mining plc (AIM:AAZ) is a gold, copper and silver producer with a
high-quality portfolio of production and exploration assets in Azerbaijan.
The Company produced 57,618 gold equivalent ounces ("GEOs") for the year
ended 31 December 2022.
On 30 March 2023, the Company published its strategic plan for growth which
shows a clearly defined path for the Company to transition to a multi-asset,
mid-tier copper and gold producer by 2028, by which time copper will be the
principal product of the Company, with forecast production of around 36,000
copper equivalent tonnes. It plans to achieve this growth by bringing into
production four new mines during the period 2024 to 2028 at Zafar, Gilar,
Xarxar and Garadag.
The Company owns approximately 17.4 per cent. of Libero Copper & Gold
Corporation ("Libero"). Libero is listed on the TSX Venture
Exchange in Canada and owns, or has the option to acquire, several copper
exploration properties in North and South America, including Mocoa
in Colombia, one of the world's largest undeveloped copper-molybdenum
resources.
https://www.angloasianmining.com/ (https://www.angloasianmining.com/)
Production overview
Q3 2023
· Total production of 5,295 GEOs (Q3 2022: 14,309 GEOs)
· Gold production of 4,163 ounces (Q3 2022: 11,087 ounces):
o 4,008 ounces contained within gold doré
o 4 ounces from sulfidisation, acidification, recycling and thickening
("SART") processing
o 151 ounces from flotation processing
· Copper production totalled 251 tonnes (Q3 2022: 609 tonnes):
o 44 tonnes from SART processing
o 207 tonnes from flotation processing
· Silver production totalled 5,696 ounces (Q3 2022: 45,063 ounces):
o 1,490 ounces contained within gold doré
o 2,232 ounces from SART processing
o 1,974 ounces from flotation processing
9M 2023
· Total production of 28,686 GEOs (9M 2022: 43,081 GEOs)
· Gold production of 18,771 ounces (9M 2022: 31,993 ounces)
· Copper production totalled 2,111 tonnes (9M 2022: 1,892 tonnes)
· Silver production totalled 50,272 ounces (9M 2022: 144,562 ounces)
Sales
· Q3 2023 gold bullion sales of 2,900 ounces at an average of $1,949 per
ounce (Q3 2022: 10,000 ounces sold at an average of $1,727 per ounce)
· Q3 2023 copper concentrate shipments totalled 2,358 dry metric tonnes
("dmt") with a sales value of $3.1 million (excluding Government of Azerbaijan
profit share) (Q3 2022: 1,718 dmt with a sales value of $3.4 million)
Company financials
· The Company had net cash of $1.6 million at 30 September 2023 ($9.6
million at 30 June 2023). The Company made the following payments in Q3 2022
o Final dividend for 2022: $4.6 million
Gedabek - mining, detailed production and sales
The Company mined the following amounts and grades of ore in the nine months
to 30 September 2023:
6 months to 3 months to 9 months to
30 June 2023 30 September 2023 30 September 2023
Mine Ore mined Average Ore mined Average Ore mined Average
gold grade gold grade gold grade
(tonnes) (g/t) (tonnes) (g/t) (tonnes) (g/t)
Open pit 1,006,483 0.35 72,819 0.32 1,079,302 0.35
Gadir - u/g 85,201 1.59 8,424 2.34 93,625 1.65
Total 1,091,684 0.45 81,243 0.53 1,172,927 0.45
* There have been some minor changes to the previously reported figures
following the reconciliation of ore stockpiles.
The Company processed the following amounts and grades of ore by leaching for
FY 2022 and Q1 to Q3 2023:
Quarter ended Ore processed Gold grade of ore processed
Heap leach pad crushed ore Heap leach pad ROM Agitation leaching Heap leach pad crushed ore Heap leach pad ROM Agitation leaching
(tonnes) ore plant* (g/t) ore plant*
(tonnes) (tonnes) (g/t) (g/t)
31 March 2022 115,173 273,577 144,275 0.75 0.48 1.63
30 June 2022 82,814 299,762 162,239 0.78 0.53 1.40
30 September 2022 92,398 302,714 162,669 0.81 0.57 1.42
31 December 2022 24,606 213,120 156,285 0.72 0.56 1.42
FY 2022 314,991 1,089,173 625,468 0.77 0.56 1.43
31 March 2023 94,518 196,595 62,006 0.74 0.49 1.3
30 June 2023 56,522 202,788 105,213 0.75 0.46 1.4
H1 2023 151,040 399,383 167,219 0.75 0.49 1.4
30 September 2023 25,690 34,621 - 0.83 0.45 -
* includes previously heap leached ore.
The Company processed the following amounts of ore and contained metal by
flotation for FY 2022 and Q1 to Q3 2023:
Quarter ended Ore processed Gold content Silver content Copper content
(tonnes) (ounces) (ounces) (tonnes)
31 March 2022 104,475 1,921 33,522 577
30 June 2022 114,099 1,293 24,209 745
30 September 2022 143,838 1,314 24,582 724
31 December 2022 119,819 1,389 18,003 670
FY 2022 482,231 5,917 100,316 2,716
31 March 2023 192,516 1,487 19,787 1,133
30 June 2023 190,593 1,033 10,380 1,191
H1 2023 383,109 2,520 30,167 2,324
30 September 2023 62,369 478 4,358 363
The following table summarises gold doré production and sales at Gedabek for
FY 2022 and Q1 to Q3 2023:
Quarter ended Gold produced* Silver Gold sales** Gold Sales price
(ounces) produced* (ounces) ($/ounce)
(ounces)
31 March 2022 8,963 7,574 7,519 1,904
30 June 2022 10,137 7,620 3,754 1,895
30 September 2022 10,473 6,949 10,000 1,727
31 December 2022 10,437 4,820 13,645 1,727
FY 2022 40,010 26,963 34,918 1,783
31 March 2023 5,965 2,841 5,719 1,895
30 June 2023 7,375 3,593 4,787 1,992
H1 2023 13,340 6,434 10,506 1,939
30 September 2023 4,008 1,490 2,900 1,949
Notes
Notes
* including Government of Azerbaijan's share
** excluding Government of Azerbaijan's share
The gold and silver production from agitation and heap leaching for FY 2022 Q1
to Q3 2023 is as follows:
Quarter Gold Silver
ended
Agitation Heap Total Agitation Heap Total
leaching leaching leaching leaching
(ounces) (ounces) (ounces) (ounces) (ounces) (ounces)
31 March 2022 5,674 3,289 8,963 4,803 2,771 7,574
30 June 2022 6,196 3,941 10,137 4,654 2,966 7,620
30 Sept 2022 5,517 4,956 10,473 3,673 3,276 6,949
31 Dec 2022 5,831 4,606 10,437 2,684 2,136 4,820
FY 2022 23,218 16,792 40,010 15,814 11,139 26,963
31 March 2023 2,105 3,860 5,965 1,077 1,764 2,841
30 June 2023 3,463 3,912 7,375 1,735 1,858 3,593
H1 2023 5,568 7,772 13,340 2,812 3,622 6,434
30 Sept 2023 - 4,008 4,008 - 1,490 1,490
The following table summarises copper concentrate production from both the
Company's SART and flotation plants at Gedabek for FY 2022 and Q1 to Q3 2023:
Concentrate Copper Gold Silver
production* content* content* content*
(dmt) (tonnes) (ounces) (ounces)
2022
Quarter ended 31 March
SART processing 330 188 12 25,114
Flotation 2,586 380 1,065 17,986
Total 2,916 568 1,077 43,100
Quarter ended 30 June
SART processing 316 168 14 25,582
Flotation 3,811 547 715 15,672
Total 4,127 715 729 41,254
Quarter ended 30 September
SART processing 367 208 33 24,077
Flotation 2,805 401 581 14,094
Total 3,172 609 614 38,171
Quarter ended 31 December
SART processing 438 244 39 20,833
Flotation 2,648 380 645 11,725
Total 3,086 624 684 32,558
2023
Quarter ended 31 March
SART processing 364 190 25 8,750
Flotation 4,544 657 751 10,975
Total 4,908 847 776 19,725
Quarter ended 30 June
SART processing 272 146 16 10,348
Flotation 5,613 867 476 8,069
Total 5,885 1,013 492 18,417
Quarter ended 30 September
SART processing 85 44 4 2,232
Flotation 1,316 207 151 1,974
Total 1,401 251 155 4,206
Note
* including Government of Azerbaijan's share.
Certain amounts for SART and flotation production may differ to those
previously disclosed due to final reconciliation of production.
The following table summarises total copper concentrate production and sales
for FY 2022 and Q1 to Q3 2023. Note that sales of concentrates are initially
recorded at provisional amounts until agreement of final assay.
Concentrate Copper Gold Silver Concentrate
Concentrate
production* content* content* content* sales** sales**
(dmt) (tonnes) (ounces) (ounces) (dmt) ($000)
Quarter ended
31 March 2022 2,916 568 1,077 43,100 1,477 3,248
30 June 2022 4,127 715 729 41,254 4,642 8,127
30 September 2022 3,172 609 614 38,171 1,718 3,378
31 December 2022 3,086 624 684 32,558 4,606 7,487
FY 2022 13,301 2,516 3,104 155,083 12,443 22,240
31 March 2023 4,908 847 776 19,725 1,147 2,743
30 June 2023 5,885 1,013 492 18,417 5,501 7,678
H1 2023 10,793 1,860 1,268 38,142 6,648 10,421
30 September 2023 1,401 251 155 4,206 2,358 3,066
Notes
* including Government of Azerbaijan's share
** excludes Government of Azerbaijan's share
**ENDS**
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