Anglo Asian Mining PLC AGM Statement (9820S)
June 29 2018 - 2:00AM
UK Regulatory
TIDMAAZ
RNS Number : 9820S
Anglo Asian Mining PLC
29 June 2018
Anglo Asian Mining plc / Ticker: AAZ / Index: AIM / Sector:
Mining
29 June 2018
Anglo Asian Mining plc
AGM Statement
Anglo Asian Mining plc ("Anglo Asian" or the "Company"), the AIM
listed gold, copper and silver producer, is holding its annual
general meeting ("AGM") at 10.30 am today at The Washington Mayfair
Hotel, 5 Curzon Street, Mayfair, London W1J 5HE. At the meeting
Reza Vaziri, the Company's CEO, will make the following
statement:
"2017 was a year of delivery for Anglo Asian; the Company
successfully implemented a wide-ranging optimisation and expansion
strategy aimed at providing long-term sustainable production growth
from our main Gedabek contract area, whilst simultaneously
improving the financial performance of the Company and
strengthening our balance sheet. The refinancing in 2018 also
significantly simplified our balance sheet. I am very pleased to
say that these initiatives have proved overwhelmingly successful
and we began 2018 with our production growing and a much more
robust platform to sustain this into the future.
"In light of the Group's prospects and current strong financial
position, the Board is now considering a dividend policy and the
payment of a maiden dividend to reward our long-standing
shareholders as well as attracting new investors to our developing
investment proposition. In order to pay a dividend the Company
(which is the parent company of the Group) must show distributable
reserves. The Board will therefore recommend to its Shareholders
that the Company's Share Premium account is cancelled which will
create distributable reserves allowing for future dividend
payments. This will require the approval of both our shareholders
and the Court. A circular convening a General Meeting of the
Company to approve the capital reduction is expected to be posted
to Shareholders by mid-July 2018 with the General meeting to be
held around the end of July 2018. After receiving legal advice, it
is expected the Court's approval could be obtained by the end of
August 2018. Provided the Shareholders and Court approval are
obtained as planned, the Board will announce its dividend policy
and programme along with its interim results in September of this
year.
"Looking now to our operational performance, our primary focus
during 2017 was on the optimisation and expansion of our mature
mining assets at Gedabek, including the Gedabek open pit and the
co-located Gadir underground mine, together with establishing new
prospects and mining targets to deliver a pipeline for future
production growth. In parallel with this, our development work at
Gedabek resulted in our newest mining operation, Ugur, commencing
production in September 2017. Advancing Ugur from discovery to
first production within 12 months not only delivered a significant
surge in our total gold production, but, importantly, demonstrated
our ability to rapidly advance new discoveries to operating mines
quickly, cost effectively and efficiently by utilising our existing
infrastructure.
"The successes of 2017 supported a healthy total production
output of 71,461 gold equivalent ounces and laid the foundations
for improved production performance in the future. This is already
being demonstrated, with total production for FY 2018 estimated at
between 78,000 to 84,000 gold equivalent ounces. The Company also
achieved a 26 per cent. increase in year-on-year gold equivalent
ounces production in Q1 2018, further highlighting the strong
growth we are experiencing following the implementation of our
expansion and optimisation programme.
"I confidently believe that Anglo Asian's future is bright and I
would like to take this moment to thank my fellow board members,
our dedicated management team and employees in Azerbaijan and of
course our shareholders for their continued support and
encouragement."
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 until the release of this
announcement.
**ENDS**
For further information please visit www.angloasianmining.com or
contact:
Reza Vaziri Anglo Asian Mining plc Tel: +994 12 596 3350
Bill Morgan Anglo Asian Mining plc Tel: +994 502 910 400
------------------------------ ----------------------
Stephen Westhead Anglo Asian Mining plc Tel: +994 502 916 894
------------------------------ ----------------------
Ewan Leggat SP Angel Corporate Finance Tel: +44 (0) 20 3470
LLP 0470
Nominated Adviser and Broker
------------------------------ ----------------------
Soltan Tagiev SP Angel Corporate Finance Tel + 44 (0) 20 3470
LLP 0470
------------------------------ ----------------------
Susie Geliher St Brides Partners Ltd Tel: +44 (0) 20 7236
1177
------------------------------ ----------------------
Lottie Wadham St Brides Partners Ltd Tel: +44 (0) 20 7236
1177
------------------------------ ----------------------
Notes:
Anglo Asian Mining plc (AIM:AAZ) is a gold, copper and silver
producer in Central Asia with a broad portfolio of production and
exploration assets in Azerbaijan. The Company has a 1,962 square
kilometre portfolio, assembled from analysis of historic Soviet
geological data and held under a Production Sharing Agreement
modelled on the Azeri oil industry.
The Company's main operating location is the Gedabek contract
area ("Gedabek") which is a 300 square kilometer area in the lower
Caucasus mountains in western Azerbaijan. The Company developed
Azerbaijan's first operating gold/copper/silver mine at Gedabek
which commenced gold production in May 2009. Mining at Gedabek was
initially from its main open pit which is an open cast mine with a
series of interconnected pits. The Company also operates the high
grade Gadir underground mine which is co-located at the Gedabek
site, In September 2017, production commenced at the Ugur open pit
mine, a recently discovered gold ore deposit at Gedabek. The
Company has a second underground mine, Gosha, which is 50
kilometres from Gedabek. Ore mined at Gosha is processed at Anglo
Asian's Gedabek plant.
The Company produced 71,461 gold equivalent ounces ('GEOs') for
the year ended 31 December 2017. Gedabek is a polymetallic project
which demonstrates a high copper content at the main open pit mine,
and an oxide gold-rich zone at Ugur. The Company therefore employs
a series of flexible processing routes through which to optimise
recoveries and efficiencies. The Company produces gold doré through
agitation and heap leaching operations, copper concentrate from its
Sulphidisation, Acidification, Recycling, and Thickening (SART)
plant and also a copper and precious metal concentrate from its
flotation plant, which is processing tailings from the agitation
leach plant. A second dedicated crusher line is also currently
being installed for the flotation plant to enable it to operate
independently of the agitation leaching plant.
The Company has forecast production for FY 2018 of between
78,000 to 84,000 GEOs an increase for the mid-point of this
guidance of over 13 per cent. compared to FY 2017 production of
71,461 GEOs.
Anglo Asian is also actively seeking to exploit its first mover
advantage in Azerbaijan to identify additional projects, as well as
looking for other properties in order to fulfil its expansion
ambitions and become a mid-tier gold and copper metal production
company.
This information is provided by RNS, the news service of the
London Stock Exchange. RNS is approved by the Financial Conduct
Authority to act as a Primary Information Provider in the United
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END
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