Anglo Asian's Azerbaijan gold production up 25 pct

TBILISI, Oct (HKSE: 3366-OL.HK - news) 15 (Reuters) - Azerbaijan's top gold producer, Anglo Asian Mining Plc (LSE: AAZ.L - news) , increased its output by 25.1 percent to 54,103 ounces in the first nine months of the year and expects to produce at total of 70,000 to 75,000 ounces for the full year, it said on Thursday.

The London-listed company increased its gold output by 16 percent to 60,285 ounces in 2014, in line with its target.

For the third quarter of this year, production at the Gedabek and Gosha mines amounted to 18,165 ounces, up from 16,178 ounces in the same quarter a year ago, but down from 18,745 ounce in the previous quarter of this year.

The company also said it increased production of copper at Azerbaijan's main mine, Gedabek, and the Gosha mine to 634 tonnes in the first nine months this year, up from 580 tonnes in the same period last year.

Silver (Shenzhen: 300221.SZ - news) output fell to 10,916 ounces from 27,419 ounces.

"We are pleased to report continuation of the exceptional gold, copper and silver production from Gedabek," Anglo Asian Chief Executive Reza Vaziri said in a statement.

"The final quarter of the year has historically been our best-performing quarter and we are confident of meeting our original production target for 2015 of between 70,000 and 75,000 ounces of gold."

He said that a small-scale flotation plant had been successfully commissioned in the third quarter of this year as planned.

The company said the plant is processing the tailings of the agitated leach plant, adding approximately 5,000 ounces of gold and 1,200 tonnes of copper this year.

Meanwhile the company's gold sales in the third quarter totalled 14,871 ounces at an average price of $1,123 per ounce. In the second quarter the company sold 16,088 ounces of gold at an average price of $1,193 per ounce.

Gold (Other OTC: GDCWF - news) sales in the nine months totalled 48,165 ounces at an average price of $1,179 per ounce, up from 37,342 ounces sold in the same period last year at an average price of $1,291 per ounce.

Gold is produced at Gedabek and other Azeri mines under a production venture with Anglo Asian, in which the government owns 49 percent.

Anglo Asian began production at Gedabek, 350 km west of the capital Baku, in July 2009 with plans to extract a total of 22 tonnes of gold.

Overall, Anglo Asian plans to exploit seven mines in western Azerbaijan with estimated gold reserves of 430 tonnes. (Reporting by Margarita Antidze; Editing by Greg Mahlich)