Anglo Asian Mining Plc (LON:AAZ) is launching a three-year rolling programme of geological exploration of near mine, brownfield and greenfield areas on its ground in Azerbaijan.
The objectives of the programme are to replace mined ounces, extend the current mine life at the Gedabek project to a 10-year minimum, increase the company's inventory of resources, and to discover new mineral deposits.
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The target discoveries would ideally be similar to Anglo Asian’s Ugur open pit mine and have the potential to be quickly developed into operating mines.
The programme will build on the results of the 2017 geological work and comprehensively cover the Company's three operating contract areas, Gedabek, Gosha contract area ("Gosha") which is located 50 kilometres from Gedabek, and Ordubad, which is located in Nakhichevan, South West Azerbaijan.
A total of around 43,500 metres of surface and underground drilling is planned, to be undertaken by one reverse circulation and two core drill rigs.
Airborne geophysics is also planned for the entire Gedabek contract area.
The overall cost for all this work in 2018 is expected to be approximately US$6mln, to be funded from internal cash flow.
"I am very pleased to announce this programme of geological exploration of our three operating contract areas,” said Anglo Asian chief executive Reza Vaziri.
“This will build upon the success of the previous few years during which time we discovered the Ugur and Gadir deposits.”