Anglo Asian Mining Plc (LON:AAZ) chief executive Reza Vaziri on Thursday told investors that the junior miner has been “extremely busy” on the ground in Azerbaijan.
As production from the Gedabek mine has been ramping up and output has started at the Ugur open-pit, the company has turned its attention to exploration.
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Exploration work is taking place at Ugur, with a view to unearthing extensions to the known mineralisation in order to increase mining inventory.
A drill programme is also underway at Gedabek where the company is working to evaluate and optimise the mine plan ahead of the next mining season in early 2018 (extraction paused in the third quarter to allow development work and drilling to take place).
Additionally, the group highlighted that low-cost exploration work has also taken place at the Ordubad contract licence area and it has seen encouraging initial results with evidence of surface and underground gold and copper mineralisation.
Operations have also been undertaken at Gedabek to increase capacity, specifically the group has raised the tailings wall to make room ahead of the imminent upgrade to the second phase of the project.
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Vaziri, in a statement, said: "We have been extremely busy on the ground in Azerbaijan in regards to exploration.
“We recently reported increased production for quarter three of 2017 with the commencement of mining at Ugur.
“Having spent time in 2017 optimising the extraction of gold and gold-copper ores from the Gedabek open pit, we now look forward to recommencing mining to contribute to production in the first quarter of 2018 with the enhanced knowledge of the mineralisation that these exploration activities will provide.”