With cash generation not being a problem, thanks to the profitable gold and copper mining operations across Azerbaijan, Anglo Asian Mining Plc is in an enviable position for 2015 and is setting the tone and standard for the industry. We spoke with Chief Financial Officer, Bill Morgan, regarding the company’s future and the developments in the past year that have set the pace for the company and its 500 staff.

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He goes on to explain that the company produces copper as a by-product but plan to expand further into copper production, by building a flotation plant in 2015.

The company’s flagship Gedabek gold and copper mine, which is located in western Azerbaijan, is an open pit, heap and agitation leach operation. Producing 52,068 ounces of gold, according to the statistics and analysis on their website. The mine also has a JORC compliant resource of 1.12M oz Au in the measured and indicated category and a JORC Reserve estimate of 744,038 oz Au both proven and probable.

Additionally, through processes of sulphidisation, acidification, recycling and thickening, Gedabek produces copper that is recovered in the form of a precipitated copper sulphide concentrate containing silver that has a commercial value.

With all of their operations focussed on Azerbaijan, Anglo Asian Mining have a second gold-copper mining project name Gosha, located 50 kilometers from Gedabek in the west of the region.

“There are a number of key projects we are involved with,” Bill reveals, “Gosha is being developed as a high grade, underground gold mine with a target of 20,000 ounces over five years. We also have a third pipeline project, Ordubad which is an early stage gold-copper exploration play located in the Nakhchivan region.”

Then there is the construction of the flotation plant at the Gedabek mine. This will act as a pilot plant to assess the viability of future full-scale copper production and will initially look to process 379,000 tonnes of stockpiled high copper content sulphide ore to produce a copper and precious metal concentrate. Operating alongside Gedabek’s existing agitation and heap leaching operations, which already produce gold and silver within the estimated costs, including capital works and ancillary equipment, is estimated to be around US$3.5 million of negotiation with Pasha Bank Azerbaijan, who have agreed to finance the turnkey construction contract of US$2.7 million.

“It is expected that the financing will be repaid from sales of

ANGLO ASIAN MINING PLC

“Our company started in the mid-1990’s,” Bill explains, “focussing on precious metal and copper production. Initial production was by heap leach and was expanded by the building of an agitated leach plant.”

ANGLO ASIAN MINING PLC

concentrate of copper and precious metal produced by the plant processing existing stockpiles of high sulphide ore,” Bill indicates.

Anglo Asian’s success is founded in partnering with the right businesses, who are able to go beyond the call of duty. As is the case with the construction company YPT who were appointed to construct the flotation plant after they worked with Anglo Asia previously for the construction of the agitation leaching plant at Gedabek, which was built for $7million under budget in 2013.

Scheduled to be operation in the third quarter of 2015, a new detailed life of mine plan for Gedabek has been developed to assess both the copper and gold cut-off grades which is expected to be finalised in January 2015.

CEO of Anglo Asia, Reza Vaziri is quoted as saying, “The construction of this small-scale flotation plant is an exciting new development in the growth of Anglo Asian as we look to exploit the full potential of the copper resource at Gedabek,” he said, “In conjunction with increasing our precious metal production, we believe this will be an important first step in Anglo Asian’s transition into becoming a major producer of copper which will be an addition to producing precious metals.”

Vaziri added that the successful operation of this small-scale

plant would establish the feasibility of constructing a full-scale plant, with the potential to add significant copper production to their current levels, “At present we have 379,000 tonnes of sulphide ore with a high copper content in stockpile at Gedabek which is suitable for processing by flotation.”

The flotation plant at Gedabek is an organic development for the company and the answer to the difficulties that arise from recovering gold from the Gedabek mine, due to the high copper content of the ore mined. What could have been considered a contamination by a less innovative company resulted in Anglo Asian Mining reappraising its business plans for the mine with the belief that they had uncovered an attractive opportunity to produce commercially viable amounts of copper using the flotation plant to process the sulphide ore, “This will add a further production stream to enhance Anglo Asian’s production profile as a leading precious metals and copper producer in Caucasia,” Bill related.

The Company currently has a stockpile of sulphide ore with a high copper content totalling 379,000 tonnes. A mixture of several precious minerals, the ore possesses an estimated average metal content of 2.12 grams per tonne of gold, 20.2 grams per tonne of silver and 0.61 per cent of copper. Suitable for concentration, this

ANGLO ASIAN MINING PLC

stockpile will be processed in the new flotation plant once it has been crushed at their crushing plant.

Once processed and prepared, the copper concentrate is destined for Industrial Minerals SA, a Swiss company who already have a contract with Anglo Asian to purchase the copper concentrate that is produced as a process by-product in the SART plant and are prepared to purchase the future productions from the flotation plant.

Following a decline in the prices of precious metals, Anglo Asian has taken on a period of growth and investment, in preparation for the inevitable revival of the market. With this in mind, the company has invested in strengthening its foundation of location, machinery and techniques as well as adding significant layers to existing relationships with suppliers and buyers. Bill explains that as Azerbaijan is not a major mining country, Anglo Asian have limited competition and are free to set the bar at a level that is comfortable for them. They have, however, made decisions and designed strategies to ensure that their position is a strong and immutable one.

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