Anglo Asian Regulatory News (AAZ)

15 January 2024

Anglo Asian Mining plc

Q4 and FY 2023 Production and Operations Review

FY 2023 production of 31,821 gold equivalent ounces at mid-range of guidance

Anglo Asian Mining plc ("Anglo Asian" or the "Company"), the AIM-listed gold, copper and silver producer primarily operating in Azerbaijan, is pleased to provide an operational and production review for the fourth quarter ("Q4 2023") and twelve months to 31 December 2023 ("FY 2023" or the "Period").

Production during the Period was significantly reduced due to operations being partially suspended as the Company and third-party contractors finalised the results of an environmental audit at its operations. An action plan was agreed with the Government of Azerbaijan on 7 November 2023, and the Company was pleased to restart mining at Gedabek in December 2023.

Production update

· Total FY 2023 production of 31,821 gold equivalent ounces ("GEOs"), in the mid-range of the revised guidance of 30,000 to 34,000 GEOs (FY 2022: 57,618 GEOs)

· Q4 2023 production of 3,080 GEOs (Q4 2022: 14,532 GEOs)

Operational update

· Protocol agreed with the Government of Azerbaijan to restart operations following the partial environmental shut-down in Q3 2023

o Mining from the Gedabek open pit restarted in December 2023

o Operations now being ramped up with flotation production restarting in Q2 2024

· Production of gold doré and copper concentrate continued throughout Q4 2023 from heap leaching and SART processing

· Caterpillar underground mining fleet for the new Gilar mine delivered to Gedabek in early December 2023

· Gilar maiden JORC mineral resource confirmed meaningful quantities of copper and gold

o  In-situ mineral resource of 54,000 tonnes of copper, 255,000 ounces of gold and 46,000 tonnes of zinc

· Gilar development continues with production planned to commence during Q3 2024

Cash and inventory update

· Net debt of $10.3 million at 31 December 2023 (30 September 2023: net cash of $1.6 million) with the following payment made in Q4 2023

o $4.7 million to Caterpillar for the underground mining fleet and associated equipment

§ Negotiations ongoing to refinance $3.7 million of the mining fleet purchase price with vendor financing

· Gross cash of $10.3 million at 31 December 2023

o $15.0 million drawn down from International Bank of Azerbaijan under its revolving credit facility and loan agreements

o $5.6 million loan drawn down from Access Bank in August 2023

· The Company had inventory at market value of $7.1 million at 31 December 2023 (gold and silver bullion of $6.9 million and copper concentrate of $0.2 million)

· 1,000 ounces of gold bullion sold in Q4 2023 at an average price of $2,001 per ounce under the gold hedging programme, generating additional sales revenue of $44,000

o Total gold bullion sales in Q4 2023 of 2,416 ounces at an average of $2,004 per ounce

o 1,500 ounces of gold bullion was sold for $2,061.5 per ounce on 3 January 2024 yielding proceeds of $3.1 million

Anglo Asian CEO Reza Vaziri commented:

"Despite a number of challenges faced during the Period, we are pleased to announce production within our previously revised guidance range.

"In November, we were pleased to agree a protocol with the Government of Azerbaijan to restart our operations, and mining at our flagship Gedabek mine recommenced in December. We continue to make meaningful progress in restarting flotation production, which is on-track to begin from Q2 2024.

"The completion of a maiden JORC mineral resource for Gilar marked a milestone for the Company, confirming our internal estimates regarding the asset's potential and its ability to meaningfully contribute to our production portfolio in the years ahead. We were also pleased to announce the delivery of a new state-of-the-art underground mining fleet for Gilar from Caterpillar, the first deployment of this type of equipment in Azerbaijan.

"Looking ahead to 2024, we will continue to prioritise the development of our exciting asset portfolio in line with our growth strategy, while driving production from our existing mines. I look forward to updating the market on our progress in the coming months."

Note that all references to "$" are to United States dollars and "CAN$" are to Canadian dollars.

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, which was incorporated into UK law by the European Union (Withdrawal) Act 2018, until the release of this announcement.

For further information please contact:

Notes to Editors:

Anglo Asian Mining plc (AIM:AAZ) is a gold, copper and silver producer with a high-quality portfolio of production and exploration assets in Azerbaijan. The Company produced 57,618 gold equivalent ounces ("GEOs") for the year ended 31 December 2022. 

On 30 March 2023, the Company published its strategic plan for growth which shows a clearly defined path for the Company to transition to a multi-asset, mid-tier copper and gold producer by 2028, by which time copper will be the principal product of the Company, with forecast production of around 36,000 copper equivalent tonnes. It plans to achieve this growth by bringing into production four new mines during the period 2024 to 2028 at Zafar, Gilar, Xarxar and Garadag. 

The Company owns approximately 13.1 per cent. of Libero Copper & Gold Corporation ("Libero"). Libero is listed on the TSX Venture Exchange in Canada and owns Mocoa in Colombia, one of the world's largest undeveloped copper-molybdenum resources. https://www.angloasianmining.com/

Production and sales overview

Q4 2023 production

· Total production of 3,080 GEOs (Q4 2022: 14,531 GEOs), comprising of:

o  2,979 ounces of gold (Q4 2022: 11,121 ounces):

§ 2,975 ounces contained within gold doré

§ 4 ounces from sulfidisation, acidification, recycling and thickening ("SART") processing

o  18 tonnes of copper (Q4 2022: 624 tonnes):

§ 18 tonnes from SART processing

o  2,874 ounces of silver (Q4 2022: 37,378 ounces):

§ 1,610 ounces contained within gold doré

§ 1,264 ounces from SART processing

FY 2023 production

· Total production of 31,821 GEOs (FY 2022: 57,618 GEOs), including:

o  21,758 ounces of gold (FY 2022: 43,114 ounces)

o  2,138 tonnes of copper (FY 2022: 2,516 tonnes)

o  53,226 ounces of silver (FY 2022: 182,046 ounces)

Q4 2023 Sales

· Q4 2023 gold bullion sales of 2,416 ounces at an average of $2,004 per ounce (Q4 2022: 13,645 ounces sold at an average of $1,727 per ounce)

· Q4 2023 copper concentrate shipments totalled 2,186 dry metric tonnes ("dmt") with a sales value of $2.3 million (excluding Government of Azerbaijan profit share) (Q4 2022: 4,606 dmt with a sales value of $7.5 million)

Gedabek - mining, detailed production and sales

The Company mined the following amounts and grades of ore in the 12 months to 31 December 2023:

The Company processed the following amounts and grades of ore by leaching for FY 2022 and FY 2023:

* includes previously heap leached ore

The Company processed the following amounts of ore and contained metal by flotation for FY 2022 and FY 2023: 

The following table summarises gold doré production and sales at Gedabek for FY 2022 and FY 2023:

* including Government of Azerbaijan's share

** excluding Government of Azerbaijan's share

The gold and silver production from agitation and heap leaching for FY 2022 and FY 2023 is as follows:

The following table summarises copper concentrate production from both the Company's SART and flotation plants at Gedabek for FY 2022 and FY 2023:

Note

 * including Government of Azerbaijan's share.

Certain amounts for SART and flotation production may differ to those previously disclosed due to final reconciliation of production.

The following table summarises total copper concentrate production and sales for FY 2022 and FY 2023. Note that sales of concentrates are initially recorded as provisional amounts until agreement of final assay.

Notes

* including Government of Azerbaijan's share

** excludes Government of Azerbaijan's share

Cash and net debt at 31 December 2023

**ENDS**