Anglo Asian Mining Plc (LON:AAZ) said today the development of its Ugur gold deposit in Western Azerbaijan was on track for first production in the fourth quarter of 2017.
Drilling and assaying of samples from Uguar, located 3km from the company’s processing facilities at its Gedabek licence, have been completed.
A preliminary sectional estimate of Azeri classified reserves by the company shows about 195,000 ounces of in-situ gold.
Anglo Asian Mining said the completion of drilling expands the total resource at the Gedabek licence, providing “significant potential upside” to its future gold production.
The group plans pre-stripping of the top soil in late July followed by conventional shovel and truck haulage in the fourth quarter.
"Anglo Asian will have progressed from making our first exploratory drill-hole of the Ugur deposit to producing ore from an open pit mine in little over one year,” said chief executive Reza Vaziri.
“This is a testament to the speed at which the Company can react when presented with value accretive opportunities.”
The miner added that further exploration in the main Gedabek open pit mine was underway and it has completed 61 reverse circulation drill-holes at a total of 2,134 metres.
It has also completed 216 metres of a planned 465 metres tunnel between the Gadir underground mine and the down dip extension of the main Gedabek open pit.