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(Alliance News) - Anglo Asian Mining PLC on Tuesday said profit fell in the first half of 2023, as revenue declined and cost of sales increased.
Shares in the AIM-listed copper, gold and silver producer focused on Azerbaijan plunged 41% to 37.83 pence each in London on Tuesday morning.
In the six months that ended June 30, Anglo Asian Mining said pretax profit fell 75% to USD1.4 million from USD5.7 million a year earlier.
This was due to cost of sales rising 24% to USD25.2 million from USD20.4 million, while revenue fell 2.2% to USD30.8 million from USD31.5 million.
Looking ahead, Anglo Asian Mining said it will be primarily focused on working with the Azerbaijan government to fully resume mining and processing at Gebabek.
"Longer term, we will remain committed to pursuing our strategy to become a mid-tier miner and delivering attractive shareholder returns," the company said.
Chief Executive Officer Reza Vaziri commented: "Our results for the period were satisfactory, and within expectations, given that we were predominantly only mining from our open pit mine. The ore mined contains reducing gold grades as the mine approaches the end of its life. However, copper production increased as the processing capacity of our flotation plant was increased and a higher proportion of the capacity of our crushing and grinding circuits was utilised to provide it with feedstock.
"The curtailment of our agitation leaching and flotation processing whilst an environmental inspection was carried out, whilst regrettable, was understandable. The company has fully cooperated with all government requests to ensure the environmental inspection was carried out properly and to expedite other related matters. The report by Micon of the environmental inspection is currently being finalised."
Due to the curtailment of agitation leaching and flotation processing, Anglo Asian Mining said it revised its production guidance for 2023 to between 30,000 and 34,000 gold equivalent ounces, assuming agitation leaching and flotation processing will not be restarted until 2024.
By Greg Rosenvinge, Alliance News reporter
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