Anglo Asian gets the green light to build second gold mine in Azerbaijan

Anglo Asian (LON:AAZ) shares were up 3% to 35 pence this morning on news that the government of Azerbaijan has approved the development of the group’s second gold mine in the country, Gosha.

In a release, the company said it would ask to delay the development until the first half of 2013 to focus first on building a processing facility at its flagship Gedabek gold mine.

During the gap, Anglo Asian also plans to implement further drilling campaigns at Gosha, to develop it into a small, profitable, high grade underground gold mine producing gold at an average rate of 10,000 to 15,000 troy ounces a year for up to five years.

“Gosha will be our second gold mine, following in the steps of our first, very successful mine, Gedabek, which is expected to produce circa 54,000 ounces this financial year. Another deposit, Ordubad, where we recently announced a Notice of Discovery, is also looking very promising, and will, we hope, be developed into a third mining operation in the future,” said Chief Executive Reza Vaziri.