In May 2021 AzerGold produced 5,100 ounces of gold and 13,900 ounces of silver; and 20,300 ounces of gold and 67,800 ounces of silver in the first 5 months of the year. The state-owned company admits the production decline, explaining this trend as being due to the implementation of technical renovation processes.

“Slightly planned decrease in production and export figures, achieved in January-May, compared to the corresponding period last year, is due to optimization operations carried out at the production line of Chovdar Integrated Regional Processing Area (ChIRPA),” AzerGold press service said.

In May the company exported 4.800 ounces of gold and 11.400 ounces of silver. In total in January-May the revenues of AzerGold from sales of 17,300 ounces of gold and 52,300 ounces of silver at international exchanges totaled 58.4 million manats ($34.3 million).

As a part of the reconstruction work carried out this year, the capacity of crushing and conveyor lines at ChIRPA was increased. Owing to optimization operations the capacity was raised by 43% and reached 300 tons per hour. Thus, production performance will be restored from the 3rd quarter of this year, and the final volume of production and export of precious metals will exceed last year’s figure, AzerGold stressed in its report.

In addition to the existing heap leach plant, the construction of a new concentrator, which will operate using the carbon in leach (CIL) vat leaching method to process transient and sulfide ores, is also ongoing at an accelerated pace.

The plant, which is expected to be commissioned in late 2022-early 2023, is expected to process sulfide stage ores from the Chovdar deposit, ore rocks from the Marekh deposit. , “Agyokush-2”, “Tulallar” and adjacent areas.

Source: Turan News Agency