AAZ Anglo Asian Mining Plc

16 January 2025

Anglo Asian Mining plc

Q4 and FY 2024 Production and Operations Review

FY 2024 Production of 16,760 gold equivalent ounces in line with guidance

Anglo Asian Mining plc ("Anglo Asian" or the "Company"), the AIM listed gold, copper and silver producer focused in Azerbaijan, provides the following production, sales and operational review for the three months to 31 December 2024 ("Q4 2024" or the "Quarter") and the twelve months to 31 December 2024 ("FY 2024").

Production update

·   Total FY 2024 production of 16,760 gold equivalent ounces ("GEOs") (FY 2023: 31,821 GEOs)

·    Production in line with previously issued guidance of 15,000 to 19,500 GEOs

·    Q4 2024 production of 8,450 GEOs (Q3 2024: 3,080 GEOs)

o Substantial increase compared to the previous quarter following resumption of full processing at Gedabek

Operational highlights

·  Full production restarted with both agitation leaching and flotation processing now operating at their design capacity at Gedabek

·  Development of the new Gilar underground mine is progressing well with the first development ore expected to be extracted in Q1 2025

·    Access now granted to the Demirli property

o Drilling completed to determine the start-up resource size

o All aspects of the property are being evaluated with the aim of restarting the plant

·    The Group anticipates issuing production guidance for the full year 2025 during Q1 2025

Q4 2024 Sales, inventory and cash update

·   Total gold bullion sales of 6,031 ounces at an average price of $2,655 per ounce (Q4 2023: 2,416 ounces at an average price of $2,004 per ounce)

·    Copper concentrate shipments totalled 1,173 dry metric tonnes ("dmt") with a sales value of $1.5 million (excluding Government of Azerbaijan profit share) (Q4 2023: 2,186 dmt with a sales value of $2.3 million)

·    Positive free cash flow in H2 2024 of $1.1 million

·    Substantial increases in metal prices during last year should considerably benefit the future revenue generated from the delayed production

·  Careful management of the balance sheet during FY 2024, to mitigate the partially suspended production during 2024, resulted in net debt only increasing by $4.6 million during the year

o Net debt of $14.8 million at 31 December 2024 (30 September 2024: $14.0 million)

·    $3.0 million advance from Trafigura repaid in December 2024

·    Inventory valued at $4.0 million at 31 December 2024 (30 September 2024: $2.7 million)

Reza Vaziri, CEO of Anglo Asian, commented:

"I am pleased to report on another significant quarter for Anglo Asian Mining as we return to regular rates of production following the partial suspension. We are also pleased to have achieved full year production in line with guidance, as we successfully resumed normal operations for our agitation leaching and flotation processing plants at Gedabek. Importantly, we only increased our net debt by $4.6 million during 2024, despite the considerable financial impact of the partial suspension of production.

"Looking ahead to this year, we are focused on delivering rates of production in line with our growth strategy, returning to a regular output at our operating mines and continuing the important progress in our portfolio of assets under development. I am particularly encouraged by the progress at Gilar, where we anticipate first ore extraction later this first quarter, and at Demirli where multiple investigations are underway, with a view to restarting production. Drilling has now also confirmed a sufficient start-up resource for Demirli. I look forward to providing further updates on our progress in the coming months."

Note that all references to "$" are to United States 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 31,821 gold equivalent ounces ("GEOs") for the year ended 31 December 2023. 

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. 

https://www.angloasianmining.com/

Q4 2024 production

·    Gold production of 7,413 ounces (Q4 2023: 2,979 ounces):

o 7,280 ounces contained within gold doré

§ 5,231 ounces from agitation leaching

§ 2,049 ounces from heap leaching

o 131 ounces from flotation

o 2 ounces from sulphidisation, acidification, recycling and thickening ("SART") processing

·    Copper production of 266 tonnes (Q4 2023: 18 tonnes)

o 249 tonnes from flotation processing (Q4 2023: nil tonnes)

o 17 tonnes from SART processing (Q4 2023: 18 tonnes)

·    Silver production totalled 12,197 ounces (Q4 2023: 2,874 ounces):

o 6,984 ounces contained within gold doré

§ 5,006 ounces from agitation leaching

§ 1,978 ounces from heap leaching

o 1,664 ounces from flotation processing

o 3,549 ounces from SART processing

FY 2024 production

·    Total FY 2024 production of 16,760 GEOs (FY 2023: 31,821 GEOs)

o Copper production of 377 tonnes (FY 2023: 2,138 tonnes)

o Gold production of 15,073 ounces (FY 2023: 21,758 ounces)

o Silver production of 28,258 ounces (FY 2023: 53,226 ounces)

Q4 2024 Sales overview

·    Total gold bullion sales of 6,031 ounces at an average price of $2,655 per ounce (Q4 2023: 2,416 ounces at an average price of $2,004 per ounce)

·    Q4 2024 copper concentrate shipments totalled 1,173 dry metric tonnes ("dmt") with a sales value of $1.5 million (excluding Government of Azerbaijan profit share) (Q4 2023: 2,186 dmt with a sales value of $2.3 million)

Q4 2024 Financials overview

·    Cash of $6.7 million ($8.1 million at 30 September 2024) including restricted cash

·    Debt of $21.5 million ($22.1 million at 30 September 2024)

·    Net debt of $14.8 million ($14.0 million at 30 September 2024)

·    Unsold gold doré and copper concentrate inventory of $4.0 million at 31 December 2024 ($2.7 million at 30 September 2024)

Gedabek - mining, detailed production and sales

The Company mined the following ore during FY 2023 and FY 2024:

The Company processed the following amounts and grades of ore by leaching for FY 2023 and FY 2024:

* includes previously heap leached ore.

The Company processed the following amounts of ore and contained metal by flotation for FY 2023 and FY 2024:

The following table summarises gold doré production and sales at Gedabek for FY 2023 and FY 2024:

* including Government of Azerbaijan's share

** excluding Government of Azerbaijan's share

The gold and silver production from agitation and heap leaching for FY 2023 and FY 2024 is as follows:

The following table summarises copper concentrate production from both the Company's SART and flotation plants at Gedabek for FY 2023 and FY 2024:

* including Government of Azerbaijan's share.

Note that 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 2023 and FY 2024. Note that sales of concentrates are initially recorded at provisional amounts until agreement of final assay:

* including Government of Azerbaijan's share

** excludes Government of Azerbaijan's share

FY 2024 Financial review

The Company's net debt increased from $10.2 million at 1 January 2024 to $14.8 million at 31 December 2024 as follows:

*  the individual line items within the cash flow above are calculated on a cash basis and not an accruals basis. They will therefore not agree to the Group's published accounts.

** the $3.0 million advance from Trafigura has been treated as a prepayment and not included in net debt at 30 June 2024. It was repaid in December 2024.