Anglo Asian Mining to start expanding ore processing facilities in western Azerbaijan in 2026

BAKU. Dec 15 (Interfax) - Anglo Asian Mining Plc, a UK-based company that mines gold, copper and silver in Azerbaijan, plans to start a project in 2026 to expand ore processing facilities at the Gedabek deposit in the western part of the country to increase copper production, the company said in a press release.

"Construction work on the project to increase the efficiency and productivity of the flotation plant will commence early next year, including the installation of an additional line of Imhoflot Pneumatic rougher and cleaner flotation cells. The Company has already procured the Imhoflot Pneumatic cells which are on site. A contract for $1.6m with Proses Mühendislik A.S. for the installation of the cells has been signed, with the additional line of flotation cells expected to increase the recovery of metals," the company said.

The company has also completed the installation of the second of two filter presses and a thickener sourced from Turkey's Yon Proses & Filtrasyon Teknoloji a cost of $0.5 million.

"This was part of an upgrade to replace [the company's] previous filter presses with two new larger filter presses, which have the capacity to process the higher-grade ore from the new Gilar mine," Anglo Asian said, adding that the installation of the new filter presses and thickener will increase future copper production.

The company said it has a stockpile of 53,190 tonnes of Gilar ore containing 1.8 grams per tonne of gold and 3.58% copper, which will be processed next year through the expanded plant.

"Since we brought the new Gilar mine into production in May 2025, there has been a bottleneck at the filter presses due to the ore grades being higher than the forecast average. These upgrades to our flotation plant enable us to efficiently process this ore variability, which is particularly valuable to Anglo Asian considering global copper demand," company vice president Stephen Westhead said in the press release.

Anglo Asian holds the rights to develop eight contract areas in Azerbaijan and has mining operations at two: Gedabek and Gosha. Anglo Asian has a 49% stake in the project and Azerbaijan, represented by AzerGold, holds a 51% interest.