Government of Azerbaijan may terminate gold production agreement with R.V.Investment

The Government of Azerbaijan may terminate the gold production agreement with a foreign company - R.V. Investment if exploration in Nakhchivan AR doesn’t yield any result, Azerbaijan’s Minister of Ecology and Natural Resources Huseyn Baghirov told APA-Economics.

According to him, the consortium of foreign companies (Azerbaijan International Mining Operating Company) doesn’t carry out exploration work properly.

Huseyn Baghirov added that exploration found Gedebek Field promising and gold production is slated to commerce in the field by the end of this year.

He said Armenia is going to offer gold deposits in Azerbaijan’s occupied lands to foreign companies and R.V.Investment should take preventive measures.

"As an American company, R.V.Investment has options to take serious move to prevent other foreign companies to tap gold in its contract area," he added.

Reza Vaziri, President of Azerbaijan International Mining Operating Company, told APA-Economics that it is planned to start re-exploration in Nakhchivan Contract Area in June-July.

He added that previous exploration work didn’t give satisfactory results.

R.V.Investment is the signatory of the Production Sharing Agreement with the Government of Azerbaijan.

Anglo Asian Mining Plc (49%) and Azerbaijan (51%) signed a 30-year Production Sharing Agreement (PSA) to establish Azerbaijan International Mining Operating Company to develop previously identified copper and gold properties in Azerbaijan that lie on the Tethyan Mineralization Belt which runs between Turkey and Pakistan.

The joint venture has 8 copper and gold development properties in 3 separate mining areas of Azerbaijan.

The Company also has rights to three additional Contract Areas in Azerbaijan’s territories occupied by Armenia.

Under the Production Sharing Agreement, 400 tons of gold, 2,500 tons of silver and 1.5 million tons of copper will be extracted from the contract areas.

/APA/