Azerbaijan more than triples gold output in 7M
BAKU. Aug 15 (Interfax) - Azerbaijan boosted gold production 3.2-fold year-on-year in January-July 2017 to 3,605 kg, the State Statistics Committee told Interfax.
Gold production came to 480.2 kg in July alone.
All the gold was shipped for refining.
Azerbaijan reduced gold production 15% to 1,894.1 kg in 2016.
Azerbaijan mines most of its gold and silver at the Gedabek and Gosha fields in its western regions under a production-sharing agreement signed back in 1997 with Britain's Anglo Asian Mining (AAM) Plc, under which the country has a 51% stake and the investor 49%. The contract is for the development of six fields in Azerbaijan, two of them in Gedabek, which is 450 km from Baku, one in Nakhichevan and three in Kelbajar and Zangelan in Nagorny Karabakh.
According to the contract, the six deposits should yield 400 tonnes of gold and 2,500 tonnes of silver. The first gold was poured at Gedabek in 2009 and the first silver in 2010. The Gosha field produced its first gold in Q3 2013. Gadir, an underground mine 700 meters from the Gedabek open pit, commenced production in 2015.
The state-owned AzerGold has started mining gold at the Chovdar field this year. Forecast production is 40,000 oz gold and 60,000 oz silver in 2017. Commercial reserves at Chovdar, which is in the Dashkesan region, have been estimated at 44.61 tonnes.