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TBILISI, Oct 16 (Reuters) - Anglo Asian Mining Plc,Azerbaijan's main gold producer, plans to reach its target ofbetween 62,000 and 67,000 ounces for the year, up as much as28.7 percent from 2013, after strong increases in the past threequarters.
London-listed Anglo Asian said on Thursday it had raisedoutput at its main mine, Gedabek, as well as smaller mine Gosha,to 43,232 ounces in January-September from 32,424 in the sameperiod of 2013.
For the third quarter, production at Gedabek and Goshareached 16,178 ounces, up from 15,736 in the previous quarter.Total output in the first three quarters of the year was up 33.3percent on the year before.
"In light of the ore currently being mined at Gedabek, whichhas a high copper content, we are actively pursuing options fromwhich to increase gold recovery to achieve our target of circa62,000 ounces for the year," Chief Executive Reza Vaziri said ina statement.
Vaziri said the considerable amount of ore mined with a highcopper content was unexpected, but added stockpiles of oretotalling 379,000 tonnes "presented an attractive opportunity."
"In light of this, we are evaluating the construction of asmall-scale flotation plant suited to process this type of oreto produce a copper and precious metals concentrate," Vazirisaid.
The company said silver production in the first threequarters was 27,419 ounces, while copper production totalled 580tonnes.
Gold sales in January-September totalled 37,342 ounces at anaverage price of $1,291 per ounce.
In 2013 output rose to 52,068 ounces from 50,025 ounces in2012, but the company said it missed its target last year due tounexpected weather conditions and processing issues.
Gold is produced at Gedabek and other Azeri mines under aproduction venture with Anglo Asian, in which the governmentowns 49 percent.
Anglo Asian began production at Gedabek, 350 km west of thecapital Baku, in July 2009 and plans to extract a total of 22tonnes of gold from the mine.
The company commissioned an agitation leaching plant atGedabek in June 2013 and installed a Knelson concentrator inMarch this year, hoping to isolate copper sulphides that werefound to have restricted gold recoveries in the leach tanks in2013.
Overall, Anglo Asian, which is controlled by R.V. InvestmentGroup Services, plans to develop seven mines in westernAzerbaijan with estimated gold reserves of 430 tonnes.
The company said in May it had signed a three-year contractwith Industrial Minerals SA, an integrated trading, mining andlogistics group, to become its exclusive partner for sales ofcopper concentrate produced at Gedabek. Industrial Mineralsreplaced Swiss trading and mining group Glencore. (Reporting by Margarita Antidze; Editing by David Holmes)
