Anglo Asian Mining announces that exploration is underway at Ugar mine in Azerbaijan

Gold, copper and silver producer, Anglo Asian Mining group, announced that exploration was underway at the "newly" producing Ugar mine in Western Azerbaijan, amid "encouraging" preliminary results from the low-cost exploration work at the Ordubad contract licence.

The AIM-listed company said it had commenced exploration at the newly producing Ugar open pit mine with the objective of defining extensions of similar mineralisation to increase resource inventory, as results from the work completed at the Ordubad contract licence, in the Nakhichevan exclave of Azerbaijan, confirmed the presence of surface and underground gold and copper mineralisation.

Meanwhile, the company confirmed that the Gadir underground mine would be able to recommence production in the fourth quarter of 2017 following a temporary pause since February 2017, as drilling results demonstrated the continuity of mineralisation.

It also said that increasing the height of the Gedabek tailings dam wall was underway in the country, with completion scheduled for the end of 2017, and that it would add six metres of vertical capacity divided between two phases.

Anglo Asian CEO Reza Vaziri said: " Having spent time in 2017 optimising the extraction of gold and gold-copper ores from the Gedabek open pit, we now look forward to recommencing mining to contribute to production in the first quarter of 2018 with the enhanced knowledge of the mineralisation that these exploration activities will provide. We are also increasing the capacity of our tailings dam to support the expansion."