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Anglo Asian (LON:AAZ) shares soared as the miner posted record gold output from its Gedabek mine in Azerbaijan for the first half.
Output for the six months to end June came in at 35,938 ounces, with 23,436 ounces from the agitation leach plant, 12,488 ounces from heap leach operations and 14 ounces from SART, the miner said.
Gold production for the second quarter was 19% up on the same period of the previous year, at 18,745 ounces (Q2, 2014: 15,736 ounces), while sales in the quarter were 16,088 ounces at an average of US$1,193 per ounce.
Copper production for the first half was 418 tonnes compared to 369 tonnes in the first six months of 2014.
Meanwhile, silver production for Q2 2015 totalled 4,527 ounces.
Chief executive Reza Vaziri said gold production for the first half exceeded the group's internal production estimate and ideally positioned Anglo Asian for a strong remainder of 2015.
"The second half of the year has historically been our best performing half due to the seasonally better weather and we are confident of meeting our production target for 2015 of between 70,000 and 75,000 ounces of gold.
"We continue to make good progress on the building of our small scale flotation plant and the necessary modifications to enable it to process the tailings of the agitated leach plant.
"The majority of the equipment for the plant is now at site. We continue to expect the plant to be commissioned in Q3 2015. The development of the Gadir mine is also progressing well with the first ore having now been extracted. We expect the main mining operation to commence next month."
Shares rose around 23% to 7.25p on the day and have advanced around 48% since the end of June this year.