Azernews.Az

By Ofeliya Afandiyeva

Azerbaijan’s AzerGold company plans to commission two gold-bearing areas in Western Dashkasan region by 2021, the Chairman of the Executive Board of AzerGold Zakir Ibrahimov said at a press conference held on February 24 on the results of 2019.

“In 2021, the flanks of the Chovdar mine - the gold-bearing areas of Agyokhush and Marakh - will be commissioned. The resource potential of Aghyokhush is estimated at 40,000 ounces of gold. The design of this field is currently being developed as part of the Chovdar field development project,” he said.

Ibrahimov noted that the first exploration work on the Marakh site has yielded positive results and additional research activities are currently underway to clarify the capacity of reserves.

The confirmed reserves of the Chovdar ore field, which is a part of the sulfide phase are 350,000 ounces of gold and 925,000 ounces of silver.

The chairman noted that at present, additional drilling work to increase resources has been completed, and an assessment of the effectiveness of reserves extraction is currently underway.

By the end of 2020, a detailed feasibility study on the sulfide phase of the field is expected.

In the second quarter of 2020, the company also plans to complete a number of researches in Tulallar field of Azerbaijani Goychay district.

“The resource potential of Tulullar deposit is estimated at 500,000 ounces of gold. To begin the development of the northern part of this field, relevant exploration, research and design work will be continued during 2020. At the same time, drilling has been completed in the southern part of the field to increase reserves. In the second quarter of this year, the company plans to complete reserves estimation, metallurgical tests and preparation of a mine plan,” he stated.

In 2019, AzerGold carried out drilling operations in all areas with a volume of over 47,000 meters. The company plans to carry out 50,000 meters of drilling operations in 2020.

He also said that Azergold predicts a significant increase in revenues by 2025.

In 2019, AzerGold received revenues of $141.9 million from the export of 59,200 ounces of gold and more than $3million from the export of 110,900 ounces of silver. Gold sales rose by 33 percent and silver sales by 47 percent compared to 2018.

“As a result of exploration, the total non-ferrous metal reserves at the sites of Azerbaijani Azergold CJSC mining company increased by more than 20 times,” Ibrahimov underlined.

He added that the extraction and export of these reserves will bring benefits to the country's economy in the amount of several billion manat.

At the same time, the implementation of these large projects requires appropriate financial resources, the chairman of the executive board said.

Ibrahimov said that to achieve these goals, the company is going to attract financing from both local and international financial institutions, and the company's equity should be at the appropriate level.

He added that the authorized capital of the company increased from $1.1 million to $21 million.

In 2017-2020, the company sold more than 173,000 ounces of gold and 290,000 ounces of silver.

Established in 2015, AzerGold CJSC is engaged in the study, research, exploration, management of precious and non-ferrous metal deposits, their extraction, processing and sale, as well as the application of new technologies in this area, improving the material and technical base and other work related to the development of this sphere.

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