AGM Statement

RNS Number : 9820S

Anglo Asian Mining PLC

29 June 2018

 

Anglo Asian Mining plc / Ticker: AAZ / Index: AIM / Sector: Mining

29 June 2018

Anglo Asian Mining plc

AGM Statement

Anglo Asian Mining plc ("Anglo Asian" or the "Company"), the AIM listed gold, copper and silver producer, is holding its annual general meeting ("AGM") at 10.30 am today at The Washington Mayfair Hotel, 5 Curzon Street, Mayfair, London W1J 5HE.  At the meeting Reza Vaziri, the Company's CEO, will make the following statement:

"2017 was a year of delivery for Anglo Asian; the Company successfully implemented a wide-ranging optimisation and expansion strategy aimed at providing long-term sustainable production growth from our main Gedabek contract area, whilst simultaneously improving the financial performance of the Company and strengthening our balance sheet.  The refinancing in 2018 also significantly simplified our balance sheet. I am very pleased to say that these initiatives have proved overwhelmingly successful and we began 2018 with our production growing and a much more robust platform to sustain this into the future. 

"In light of the Group's prospects and current strong financial position, the Board is now considering a dividend policy and the payment of a maiden dividend to reward our long-standing shareholders as well as attracting new investors to our developing investment proposition.  In order to pay a dividend the Company (which is the parent company of the Group) must show distributable reserves. The Board will therefore recommend to its Shareholders that the Company's Share Premium account is cancelled which will create distributable reserves allowing for future dividend payments. This will require the approval of both our shareholders and the Court. A circular convening a General Meeting of the Company to approve the capital reduction is expected to be posted to Shareholders by mid-July 2018 with the General meeting to be held around the end of July 2018.  After receiving legal advice, it is expected the Court's approval could be obtained by the end of August 2018. Provided the Shareholders and Court approval are obtained as planned, the Board will announce its dividend policy and programme along with its interim results in September of this year.

"Looking now to our operational performance, our primary focus during 2017 was on the optimisation and expansion of our mature mining assets at Gedabek, including the Gedabek open pit and the co-located Gadir underground mine, together with establishing new prospects and mining targets to deliver a pipeline for future production growth.  In parallel with this, our development work at Gedabek resulted in our newest mining operation, Ugur, commencing production in September 2017.  Advancing Ugur from discovery to first production within 12 months not only delivered a significant surge in our total gold production, but, importantly, demonstrated our ability to rapidly advance new discoveries to operating mines quickly, cost effectively and efficiently by utilising our existing infrastructure.

"The successes of 2017 supported a healthy total production output of 71,461 gold equivalent ounces and laid the foundations for improved production performance in the future.  This is already being demonstrated, with total production for FY 2018 estimated at between 78,000 to 84,000 gold equivalent ounces.  The Company also achieved a 26 per cent. increase in year-on-year gold equivalent ounces production in Q1 2018, further highlighting the strong growth we are experiencing following the implementation of our expansion and optimisation programme.

"I confidently believe that Anglo Asian's future is bright and I would like to take this moment to thank my fellow board members, our dedicated management team and employees in Azerbaijan and of course our shareholders for their continued support and encouragement."

Market Abuse Regulation (MAR) Disclosure

Certain information contained in this announcement would have been deemed inside information for the purposes of Article 7 of Regulation (EU) No 596/2014 until the release of this announcement.

**ENDS**

For further information please visit www.angloasianmining.com or contact:

Reza Vaziri	Anglo Asian Mining plc	Tel: [phone]
Bill Morgan	Anglo Asian Mining plc	Tel: [phone]
Stephen Westhead	Anglo Asian Mining plc	Tel: [phone]
Ewan Leggat	SP Angel Corporate Finance LLP Nominated Adviser and Broker	Tel: [phone]
Soltan Tagiev	SP Angel Corporate Finance LLP	Tel + 44 (0) 20 3470 0470
Susie Geliher	St Brides Partners Ltd	Tel: [phone]
Lottie Wadham	St Brides Partners Ltd	Tel: [phone]

Notes:

Anglo Asian Mining plc (AIM:AAZ) is a gold, copper and silver producer in Central Asia with a broad portfolio of production and exploration assets in Azerbaijan. The Company has a 1,962 square kilometre portfolio, assembled from analysis of historic Soviet geological data and held under a Production Sharing Agreement modelled on the Azeri oil industry.

The Company's main operating location is the Gedabek contract area ("Gedabek") which is a 300 square kilometer area in the lower Caucasus mountains in western Azerbaijan. The Company developed Azerbaijan's first operating gold/copper/silver mine at Gedabek which commenced gold production in May 2009.  Mining at Gedabek was initially from its main open pit which is an open cast mine with a series of interconnected pits. The Company also operates the high grade Gadir underground mine which is co-located at the Gedabek site, In September 2017, production commenced at the Ugur open pit mine, a recently discovered gold ore deposit at Gedabek. The Company has a second underground mine, Gosha, which is 50 kilometres from Gedabek. Ore mined at Gosha is processed at Anglo Asian's Gedabek plant.

The Company produced 71,461 gold equivalent ounces ('GEOs') for the year ended 31 December 2017.  Gedabek is a polymetallic project which demonstrates a high copper content at the main open pit mine, and an oxide gold-rich zone at Ugur.  The Company therefore employs a series of flexible processing routes through which to optimise recoveries and efficiencies.  The Company produces gold doré through agitation and heap leaching operations, copper concentrate from its Sulphidisation, Acidification, Recycling, and Thickening (SART) plant and also a copper and precious metal concentrate from its flotation plant, which is processing tailings from the agitation leach plant. A second dedicated crusher line is also currently being installed for the flotation plant to enable it to operate independently of the agitation leaching plant.

The Company has forecast production for FY 2018 of between 78,000 to 84,000 GEOs an increase for the mid-point of this guidance of over 13 per cent. compared to FY 2017 production of 71,461 GEOs.

Anglo Asian is also actively seeking to exploit its first mover advantage in Azerbaijan to identify additional projects, as well as looking for other properties in order to fulfil its expansion ambitions and become a mid-tier gold and copper metal production company.

 

END

 

 

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