TIDMAAZ
RNS Number : 6485D
Anglo Asian Mining PLC
11 October 2018
Anglo Asian Mining plc / Ticker: AAZ / Index: AIM / Sector:
Mining
11 October 2018
Anglo Asian Mining plc
Q3 2018 Production and Operations review
28 per cent. year-on-year increase in total production for YTD
Q3 2018 to 61,761 GEOs and net cash of $2.8 million
Anglo Asian Mining plc ("Anglo Asian" or the "Company"), the AIM
listed gold, copper and silver producer focused in Azerbaijan, is
pleased to provide a production, sales and operations review for
its Gedabek gold, copper and silver mining and production contract
area ("Gedabek") in western Azerbaijan for the three and nine
months to 30 September 2018 ("Q3 2018" and "YTD Q3 2018"
respectively).
Note that all references to "$" are to United States
dollars.
Overview
-- Continued improvement in total production in Q3 2018
expressed as gold equivalent ounces ("GEOs") with a 28 per cent.
quarter-on-quarter and a 38 per cent. year-on-year ("y-o-y")
increase to 24,412 GEOs
-- 28 per cent. y-o-y increase in YTD Q3 2018 total production to 61,761 GEOs
-- Net cash of $2.8 million at end of September 2018 with only
debt being the Pasha Bank low cost refinancing loan
-- As announced on 19 September 2018, an interim dividend of
US$0.03 per share will be paid gross in respect of the year ending
31 December 2018 to shareholders on 8 November 2018
Anglo Asian CEO Reza Vaziri commented: "This has been another
excellent quarter for Anglo Asian as copper production restarted
from the flotation plant following the commissioning of the second
crusher line. Quarter three production showed strong year-on-year
growth of 38 per cent. to 24,412 gold equivalent ounces. Given the
strong production in the year so far, I am expecting production for
the full year to be at the upper end of our guidance.
"The Company's increasing production continues to strengthen our
balance sheet and I am again pleased to say that the Company moved
into having net cash of $2.8 million at the end of September. This
is an exciting time for Anglo Asian as we prepare to pay our maiden
dividend in November 2018."
Production Overview
Q3 2018
-- 38 per cent. y-o-y increase in total production to 24,412 GEOs (Q3 2017: 17,714 ounces)
-- 47 per cent. y-o-y increase in gold production to 21,318 ounces (Q3 2017: 14,468 ounces):
o 18,874 ounces contained within gold doré
o 7 ounces from SART processing
o 2,437 ounces from flotation
-- Copper production totalled 470 tonnes (Q3 2017: 550 tonnes):
o 81 tonnes from SART processing
o 389 tonnes from flotation processing
-- Silver production totalled 59,346 ounces (Q3 2017: 40,288 ounces):
o 7,416 ounces contained within gold doré
o 17,357 ounces from SART processing
o 34,573 ounces from flotation
YTD Q3 2018
-- 28 per cent. y-o-y increase in total production to 61,761 GEOs (YTD Q3 2017: 48,275 GEOs)
-- 45 per cent. y-o-y increase in gold production to 54,573 ounces (YTD Q3 2017: 37,686 ounces)
-- Copper production totalled 1,057 tonnes (YTD Q3 2017: 1,872 tonnes)
-- Silver production totalled 144,362 ounces (YTD Q3 2017: 125,375 ounces)
-- Forecast production for FY 2018 now at upper end of previous
guidance of between 78,000 to 84,000 GEOs
Sales
-- Q3 2018 gold bullion sales of 18,637 ounces at an average of
$1,216 per ounce (Q2 2018 gold bullion sales of 10,822 ounces at an
average of $1,307 per ounce)
-- Q3 2018 copper concentrate shipments to the customer totalled
1,557 dry metric tonnes ("dmt") with a sales value of $3.4 million
(excluding Government of Azerbaijan profit share) (Q2 2018: 1,736
dmt with a sales value of $4.2 million)
Company financials
-- Net cash, being cash and cash equivalents less
interest-bearing loans and borrowings, totalled $2.8 million at 30
September 2017 (Net debt of $2.9 million at 30 June 2018)
Gedabek - mining, production and sales
The Company mined the following ore in the nine months to 30
September 2018:
6 months to 3 months to 9 months to
30 June 2018* 30 September 2018 30 September 2018
Average Average Average
Mine Ore mined gold grade Ore mined gold grade Ore mined gold grade
(tonnes) (g/t) (tonnes) (g/t) (tonnes) (g/t)
---------- ------------ ---------- ------------ ---------- ------------
Open pit 51,237 0.95 90,415 1.34 141,652 1.20
Ugur - o/pit 467,382 1.31 420,320 1.17 887,702 1.24
Gadir - u/g 56,765 5.62 34,439 3.91 91,204 4.97
Gosha - u/g - - - - - -
---------- ------------ ---------- ------------ ---------- ------------
Total 575,384 1.70 545,174 1.37 1,120,558 1.54
============== ========== ============ ========== ============ ========== ============
* There have been some minor changes to the previously reported
figures following reconciliation of ore stockpiles.
As previously reported, low grade ore (less than 1.5 grammes per
tonne of gold) is being treated by heap leaching, whilst higher
grade ore (more than 1.5 grammes per tonne of gold) is being
processed through the agitation leaching plant.
Anglo Asian stacked 195,957 tonnes of dry crushed ore onto heap
leach pads with an average gold content of 0.91 grammes per tonne
(Q2 2018: 150,573 tonnes with an average gold content of 0.91
grammes per tonne) during Q3 2018. The Company also heap leached
uncrushed Run of Mine ("ROM") ore. During Q3 2018, Anglo Asian
stacked 136,595 tonnes of ROM ore onto heap leach pads with an
average gold content of 0.40 grammes per tonne (Q2 2018: 77,493
tonnes with an average gold content of 0.51 grammes per tonne).
The Company processed during Q3 2018, 196,700 dry tonnes of ore
with an average gold content of 2.39 grammes per tonne through the
agitation leaching plant (Q2 2018: 196,107 dry tonnes with an
average gold content of 2.19 grammes per tonne). 126,009 dry tonnes
of ore containing an average copper content of 0.47 per cent. was
processed by the flotation plant in Q3 2018.
During Q3 2018, the Company produced gold doré containing 18,874
ounces of gold and 7,416 ounces of silver at Gedabek (Q2 2018:
15,532 ounces of gold and 6,014 ounces of silver). During Q3 2018,
the agitation leaching plant produced 13,881 and 5,404 ounces of
gold and silver, respectively, and the heap leach operations
produced 4,993 and 2,012 ounces of gold and silver,
respectively.
SART processing in Q3 2018 produced 162 dmt of copper
concentrate containing 81 tonnes of copper and 7 ounces of gold (Q2
2018: 260 dmt of copper concentrate containing 137 tonnes of copper
and 6 ounces of gold). YTD Q3 2018 SART copper production was 332
tonnes compared to YTD Q3 2017 production of 562 tonnes. Production
of copper was lower YTD 2018 due to processing mainly Ugur ores in
the agitation leaching plant which do not contain copper.
Flotation processing in Q3 2018 produced 2,501 dmt of copper
concentrate containing 389 tonnes of copper and 2,437 ounces of
gold (Q2 2018: 1,396 dmt of copper concentrate containing 195
tonnes of copper and 1,226 ounces of gold).
The following table summarises gold doré production and sales at
Gedabek for FY 2017 and Q1 to Q3 2018:
Gold produced* Silver Gold sales** Gold Sales
(ounces) Produced* (ounces) price
(ounces) ($/ounce)
Quarter ended
31 March 2017 9,258 2,447 8,283 1,220
30 June 2017 9,131 3,266 7,406 1,258
H1 2017 18,389 5,713 15,689 1,238
30 Sept 2017 12,221 4,381 9,287 1,286
31 Dec 2017 21,924 12,634 18,520 1,278
H2 2017 34,145 17,015 27,807 1,281
FY 2017 52,534 22,728 43,496 1,265
31 March 2018 15,750 7,110 14,956 1,328
30 June 2018 15,532 6,014 10,822 1,307
H1 2018 31,282 13,124 25,778 1,319
30 September 2018 18,874 7,416 18,637 1,216
------------------ -------------- ----------- ------------- ----------
Note that some of the figures in the above table may differ from
previously reported due to agreement of final assay.
* including Government of Azerbaijan's share
** excludes Government of Azerbaijan's share
The following table summarises copper concentrate production
from both the Company's SART and flotation plants at Gedabek for FY
2017 and Q1 to Q3 2018:
Concentrate Copper Gold Silver
production* content* content* content*
2017 (dmt) (tonnes) (ounces) (ounces)
Quarter ended 31 March
SART processing 428 210 5 5,523
Flotation 2,312 396 1,815 31,399
Total 2,740 606 1,820 36,922
Quarter ended 30 June
SART processing 419 187 4 4,717
Flotation 3,203 529 3,005 37,735
Total 3,622 716 3,009 42,452
Quarter ended 30 Sept
SART processing 333 165 4 9,097
Flotation 2,379 385 2,243 26,810
Total 2,712 550 2,247 35,907
Quarter ended 31 December
SART processing 256 119 7 34,844
Flotation - - - -
Total 256 119 7 34,844
2018
Quarter ended 31 March
SART processing 223 114 6 22,118
Flotation 819 141 735 11,587
Total 1,042 255 741 33,705
Quarter ended 30 June
SART processing 260 137 6 21,800
Flotation 1,136 195 1,226 16,387
Total 1,396 332 1,232 38,187
Quarter ended 30 September
SART processing 162 81 7 17,357
Flotation 2,501 389 2,437 34,573
Total 2,663 470 2,444 51,930
---------------------------- ------------ --------- --------- ---------
* including Government of Azerbaijan's share.
** certain amounts for flotation production are different to
those previously disclosed due to final reconciliation of
production and sales.
The following table summarises total copper concentrate
production and sales at Gedabek for FY 2017 and Q1 through Q3 2018.
Note that sales of concentrates are initially recorded at
provisional amounts until agreement of final assay:
Concentrate Copper Gold Silver Concentrate Concentrate
production* content* content* content* sales** sales**
(dmt) (tonnes) (ounces) (ounces) (dmt) ($000)
Quarter ended
31 March 2017 2,740 606 1,820 36,922 2,230 4,220
30 June 2017 3,622 716 3,009 42,452 3,166 6,104
H1 2017 6,362 1,322 4,829 79,374 5,396 10,324
30 Sept 2017 2,712 550 2,247 35,907 2,905 5,480
31 Dec 2017 256 119 7 34,844 198 854
H2 2017 2,968 669 2,254 70,751 3,103 6,334
FY 2017 9,330 1,991 7,083 150,125 8,499 16,658
31 March 2018 1,042 255 741 33,474 608 1,715
30 June 2018 1,396 332 1,232 38,187 1,736 4,221
H1 2018 2,438 587 1,973 71,661 2,344 5,936
30 Sept 2018 2,663 470 2,444 51,930 1,557 3,368
--------------- ------------ --------- --------- --------- ------------- --------------
* including Government of Azerbaijan's share
** excludes Government of Azerbaijan's share
Net cash
The Company had net cash at 30 September 2018 of $2.8 million,
an increase in cash of $5.7 million from net debt of $2.9 million
at 30 June 2018 as follows:
$m
Cash at bank and on hand 14.4
Pasha Bank refinancing loan (11.6)
------
Net cash 2.8
------
The Company made a payment of $3.0 million at the end of
September in respect of corporation tax in Azerbaijan. The Company
has now utilised all brought forward tax losses in Azerbaijan and
going forward will be a corporation tax payer.
Market Abuse Regulation (MAR) Disclosure
Certain information contained in this announcement would have
been deemed inside information for the purposes of Article 7 of
Regulation (EU) No 596/2014 until the release of this
announcement.
**ENDS**
For further information please visit www.angloasianmining.com or
contact:
Reza Vaziri Anglo Asian Mining plc Tel: +994 12 596 3350
Bill Morgan Anglo Asian Mining plc Tel: +994 502 910 400
------------------------------ ----------------------
Stephen Westhead Anglo Asian Mining plc Tel: +994 502 916 894
------------------------------ ----------------------
Ewan Leggat SP Angel Corporate Finance Tel: +44 (0) 20 3470
LLP 0470
Nominated Adviser and Broker
------------------------------ ----------------------
Soltan Tagiev SP Angel Corporate Finance Tel + 44 (0) 20 3470
LLP 0470
------------------------------ ----------------------
Susie Geliher St Brides Partners Ltd Tel: +44 (0) 20 7236
1177
------------------------------ ----------------------
Lottie Wadham St Brides Partners Ltd Tel: +44 (0) 20 7236
1177
------------------------------ ----------------------
Notes:
Anglo Asian Mining plc (AIM:AAZ) is a gold, copper and silver
producer in Central Asia with a broad portfolio of production and
exploration assets in Azerbaijan. The Company has a 1,962 square
kilometre portfolio, assembled from analysis of historic Soviet
geological data and held under a Production Sharing Agreement
modelled on the Azeri oil industry.
The Company's main operating location is the Gedabek contract
area ("Gedabek") which is a 300 square kilometer area in the lesser
Caucasus mountains in western Azerbaijan. The Company developed
Azerbaijan's first operating gold/copper/silver mine at Gedabek
which commenced gold production in May 2009. Mining at Gedabek was
initially from its main open pit which is an open cast mine with a
series of interconnected pits. The Company also operates the high
grade Gadir underground mine which is co-located at the Gedabek
site, In September 2017, production commenced at the Ugur open pit
mine, a recently discovered gold ore deposit at Gedabek. The
Company has a second underground mine, Gosha, which is 50
kilometres from Gedabek. Ore mined at Gosha is processed at Anglo
Asian's Gedabek plant.
The Company produced 71,461 gold equivalent ounces ('GEOs') for
the year ended 31 December 2017. Gedabek is a polymetallic ore
deposit that has gold together with significant concentrations of
copper in the main open pit mine, and an oxide gold-rich zone at
Ugur. The Company therefore employs a series of flexible processing
routes to optimise metal recoveries and efficiencies. The Company
produces gold doré through agitation and heap leaching operations,
copper concentrate from its Sulphidisation, Acidification,
Recycling, and Thickening (SART) plant and also a copper and
precious metal concentrate from its flotation plant, which is
processing tailings from the agitation leach plant. A second
dedicated crusher line has recently been commissioned and is now in
operation for the flotation plant to enable it to operate
independently of the agitation leaching plant.
The Company has forecast production for FY 2018 of between
78,000 to 84,000 GEOs an increase for the mid-point of this
guidance of over 13 per cent. compared to FY 2017 production of
71,461 GEOs.
Anglo Asian is also actively seeking to exploit its first mover
advantage in Azerbaijan to identify additional projects, as well as
looking for other properties in order to fulfil its expansion
ambitions and become a mid-tier gold and copper metal production
company.
This information is provided by RNS, the news service of the
London Stock Exchange. RNS is approved by the Financial Conduct
Authority to act as a Primary Information Provider in the United
Kingdom. Terms and conditions relating to the use and distribution
of this information may apply. For further information, please
contact rns@lseg.com or visit www.rns.com.
END
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