12 Dec 2022 09:20

AzerGold starting mining at Tulallar deposit, to spend $42 mln on blasting, ore transport

BAKU. Dec 12 (Interfax) - State gold mining company AzerGold plans to spend more than $42 million on blasting work and transportation of ore from the Tulallar deposit in the Goygol district in western Azerbaijan.

The company has signed a contract for these services worth AZN71.985 million (about $42.3 million at the current rate) with Global Mining LLC, data on the government procurements website showed.

The contract is also supposed to work out the administrative structure.

The Tulallar deposit, discovered in 2002 on the northeast slope of the Lesser Caucasus, has estimated recoverable gold reserves of 84,787 ounces. AzerGold said on its website that it began surface testing and geological mapper of the deposit in 2017 and continued this work until 2020. Geological work was completed in July 2021.

Tulallar was scheduled to be launched this year. AzerGold said in April that ore mining at the deposit would begin in 2022. The ore will be shipped to a processing plant being built at the Chovdar field using the "high-efficiency carbon-in-leach method," the company said.

The plant will also process ores from the "sulfide phase of the Chovdar field, Marah, Agyokhush 2, [and the] Narimanli potential gold deposit which was discovered as a result of exploration work carried out by geologists of our company" in 2021," AzerGold said at the time.

AzerGold was established by a presidential decree issued on February 11, 2015. The company prospects, explores, develops and manages gold and iron ore deposits and mines, processes and sells metals.