The Azerbaijan Parliament has ratified amendments to Anglo Asian’s production sharing agreement, granting the company three new contract areas over a combined area of 882 km2.
The Parliamentary ratification legally granted the company the three new contract areas that it was awarded in September last year.
CEO Reza Vaziri said on Wednesday that the significance of these acquisitions could be overstated, adding considerable mineralisation to its asset base and revolutionising its portfolio.
The new assets present an opportunity for Anglo Asian to evolve from a predominantly gold producer to one that is predominantly a copper miner. The Garadagh porphyry deposit alone contains over 300 000 t of copper.
"These new contract areas provide Anglo Asian with a pathway to achieving our ambition of becoming a midtier mining company. In pursuit of this, the company is currently developing our operational growth strategy and we look forward to sharing this with the market once finalised,” said Vaziri.
Anglo Asian now has eight contract areas in Azerbaijan, covering a total area of 2 544 km2.
THE NEW CONTRACT AREAS
Garadagh and Xarxar are situated 4 km and 1.5 km, respectively, from the northern boundary of Gedabek.
Garadagh contains 168 000 t and 150 700 t of copper in Soviet resource classifications C1 and C2 respectively, totalling 318 700 t with an average grade of 0.64%.
Xarxar has displayed significant potential as it is likely part of the same mineral system, and our geologists will now be able to assess the site.
Demirli is adjacent to the existing Kyzlbulag contract area in the Karabakh economic region, and will expand the area under concession to the northeast. The new Demirli contract area contains the already built Demirli mining property, so developing operations at Demirli should have an accelerated timeline.