Azerbaijan, Baku, April 19 / Trend A.Akhundov /
Plans of Anglo Asian Mining plc for the construction of a new plant in the Gedabek gold and copper mine are a response to the expected increase in reserves, Minister of Ecology and Natural Resources of Azerbaijan Huseyn Baghirov told Trend on Thursday.
Anglo Asian Mining plc, which is an operator of the deposit, plans to build a plant for vat leaching in the long term in order to improve the extraction and production of gold.
The plant, if built, will handle the rich iron ore and reserves not suitable for heap leaching - a method of obtaining gold from the ore, which is currently used in the field.
The technology of vat leaching allows to extract more than 90 percent of the gold contained in ore, whereas the figure is about 70 percent for heap leaching.
"If the gold content per ton of ore is less than two or three grams, then it is cheaper and more profitable to use heap leaching, which allows to extract maximum 70 percent and 50-60 percent gold in real. Practice and evaluation showed that the gold content in this deposit is about seven grams per tone. Some 30 percent loss in this case amounts to about 2-3 grams of gold per tone, which is even more than gold content in some fields. Therefore, it makes no sense to use the current technology, it is more appropriate to build the plant for close leaching and to extract more gold. It is a normal commercial decision of the question," Baghirov said.
The minister said it is more profitable in such small country as Azerbaijan, to build one plant and transport there the ore from all the gold deposits than to build a plant under each of them.
The final decision on the construction of the plant will be made after the completion of assessment of Gedabek deposit in the second quarter of 2012.
According to preliminary results of the revaluation, which is carried out according to the classification of the Joint Ore Reserves Committee, the measured gold reserves at this deposit are 738,958 oz. (nearly 21 tons), copper - 57,069 tons and silver - 5,927,487 oz. (168 tons).
Indicated gold reserves are 315,424 oz. (nearly 9 tons), copper - 24,696 tons and silver - 2,681,064 oz. (76 tons).
Measured and indicated gold reserves are 1,054,382 oz. (29.89 tons), copper - 81,765 tons and silver - 8,608,551 oz. (244.05 tons). It's necessary to process 37.11 million tons of ore for their production.
Inferred gold reserves are estimated at 222,040 oz. (6.29 tons), copper - 13,125 tons and silver - 1,697,102 oz. (48.11 tons).
Taking into account the measured, indicated and inferred category, after processing 48,138,979 tons the results are: 1,276,422 oz. of gold (a 61 per cent increase); 94,890 tons of copper (a 93 per cent increase); and 10,305,653 oz. of silver (a 36 per cent increase) can be produced.
The Anglo Asian Mining Company has the rights to develop six deposits in the south-west of Azerbaijan - Gedabek, 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.
Gold produced at the deposits is sent for refinement to Switzerland. Bullions are brought to Azerbaijan and stored in the government's vaults. The first gold and silver was produced at the Gedabek deposit in May 2009.