BAKU, April 13 (Reuters) - Azerbaijan's top gold producer,Anglo Asian Mining Plc, cut its output by 17.6 percentto 14,172 ounces in the first quarter and set a target of 73,000to 77,000 ounces for 2016.
The company increased its gold output by 19 percentyear-on-year to 72,032 ounces in 2015, hitting its target forthe year.
The London-listed firm said it increased production ofcopper at Azerbaijan's main mine, Gedabek, and the Gosha mine to432 tonnes in January to March, from 182 tonnes a year earlier.Silver output rose to 1,958 ounces from 597 ounces.
"The first quarter of the year has always had lowerproduction due to the difficult winter weather conditions,"Anglo Asian CEO Reza Vaziri said in a statement on Wednesday.
He said that the company had contracted for a second semiautogenous grinding (SAG) mill to be installed. These are usedto crush and grind ore.
"We expect the SAG mill to be operational in the thirdquarter of 2016," Vaziri said.
The company commissioned its new flotation plant at Gedabekin the third quarter of the last year. It began commercialproduction in the fourth quarter.
Gold dore sales in the first quarter of this year totalled12,058 ounces at an average price of $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 a total of 22tonnes of gold.
Overall, Anglo Asian plans to exploit seven mines in westernAzerbaijan with estimated gold reserves of 430 tonnes. (Reporting by Margarita Antidze; Editing by Alexander Smith)