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BAKU, July 14 (Reuters) - Azerbaijan's top gold producerAnglo Asian Mining said on Thursday its first-halfoutput fell 5.9 percent to 33,837 ounces but that it was keepingits 2016 production target unchanged at 73,000 to 77,000 ounces.
In 2015, the company increased its gold output by 19 percentto 72,032 ounces, hitting its target for the year.
The London-listed firm said it increased copper productionat Azerbaijan's Gedabek main mine and the Gosha mine to 969tonnes in the first six months, from 418 tonnes a year earlier.
Its silver output rose to 90,782 ounces from 6,477 ounces.
"The second half of the year has historically been our bestperforming half due to the seasonally better weather and ourproduction will also benefit from the second SAG (semiautogenous grinding) mill which is due to start operating nextmonth," Anglo Asian CEO Reza Vaziri said in a statement.
"We are therefore confident of meeting our production targetfor 2016 of between 73,000 and 77,000 ounces of gold and 1,700to 2,100 tonnes of copper."
The SAG mill, which is due to be installed in early August,is used to crush and grind ore.
The company commissioned its new flotation plant at Gedabekin the third quarter of last year and it began commercialproduction in the fourth quarter.
Gold dore sales in the second quarter of this year totalled15,661 ounces at an average price of $1,265 per ounce, up from12,058 ounces sold in the first quarter at $1,184 per ounce.
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 with plans to extract 22 tonnes ofgold. Overall, Anglo Asian plans to exploit seven mines inwestern Azerbaijan with estimated gold reserves of 430 tonnes. (Reporting by Margarita Antidze; editing by David Clarke)
