Anglo Asian to construct new leach plant at Gadabay
Baku, May 14 (AZERTAC). Anglo Asian Mining (LON:AAZ), the AIM listed gold producer in Azerbaijan, has announced that it plans to construct an agitation leaching plant to improve gold recoveries at its flagship Gadabay gold/copper/silver mine in Azerbaijan.
Anglo Asian says an increased confidence in Gadabay`s future gold production has justified the decision to move forward with the new leaching plant.
Gold recoveries will increase to 85% for oxide ore and up to 69% for the sulphide ore. The new plant will be designed to treat 100 tonnes of ore per hour. And it is expected to cost US$52 million, the company said.
The first plant equipment is expected to arrive in the third quarter.
The company`s confidence in the mine comes after a 50% increase to Gadabay`s resource base, in a recent assessment. The project now has over 1 million ounces in the Measured and Indicated resource categories.
Meanwhile drilling work continues this year and this is expected to provide a further resource update. The new plant uses agitation leaching. And it will be able to process high grade gold ore as well as additional ore which are not suitable for the current heap leaching operation - it will also be able to process `spent` ore processed by the current heap leaching operation.
The company will submit its final paperwork to the Azerbaijan government. Anglo Asian says it is confident that the project will be approved.
The Anglo Asian Mining Company has the rights to develop six deposits in the south-west of Azerbaijan - Gadabay, Ordubad, Gosha Bulag, Gyzyl Bulag, Vezhnali and Soyutlu based on a PSA type agreement signed in August 1997 with Azerbaijani government. Under the contract, production of about 400 tons of gold, 2500 tons of silver and 1.5 million tons of copper is planned at the deposit.
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