RSS UpdatesCompany Information for Oxus Gold Plc
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 AIM; OXS
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Company Statement
Oxus Gold plc (‘Oxus’) is a producing gold mining company with primary operations inside the Republic of Uzbekistan. Founded in 1996, Oxus listed on London’s Alternative Investment Market (AIM) in 2001 and is currently producing significant quantities of both gold and silver from its 50% stake in the Amantaytau Goldfields JV (AGF) which is located in the Kyzylkum region of Uzbekistan, To date AGF has produced approximately 500,000 ounces of gold and silver (expressed as gold equivalent ounces) from its two operations and a third mine, the Asaukak Heap Leach, is due to be built by the end of 2008 which will process one million tonnes per annum of ore.
Total AGF ‘Proven and Probable’ reserves were 2,839,000 ozs of gold and 6,739,000 ozs of silver (of which half are attributable to Oxus), under JORC classification.
In May 2008 Oxus announced that it has mandated The Royal Bank of Scotland to arrange a project finance facility of approximately $150 million of which RBS has underwritten 50% of the total. The Facility will be used to enable AGF to develop its Phase 2 underground sulphides project. Oxus also announced the placing of US$ 18.5m of convertible notes with existing institutional shareholders.
The sulphide mine is expected to be in production in 2010 with the bankable study showing production of 300,000 ounces of gold in its first full year.
AGF is situated on one of the world’s largest areas of gold endowment, the Tien Shan belt, second only in size to that of the Witwatersrand basin. AGF also enjoys the benefit of being positioned just 40 kms south of the world’s largest single open pit gold mine at Muruntau.
Current Operations
Amantaytau Goldfields
The mineral deposits of the Amantaytau area are located in the desert-like Kyzylkum Region of the Navoi Oblast. The principal town of the region is Navoi which is the largest mining town in Uzbekistan, lying some 160km to the southeast of Amantaytau. The area is connected to all major centres by paved road and railway. The deposits are situated approximately 30km south of the town of Zarafshan, and to the southwest of the gold mining complex at Muruntau. Production to date has been from the Centralny, Vysokovoltnoye and Asaukak deposits. Generally, the climate of Uzbekistan is continental and arid, with hot summers and cool winters producing a wide range in diurnal temperatures and mining is achievable year round. The topography is typically flat terrain, with gentle hills and sparse vegetation, typical of semi desert steppe.
From inception the strategic plan has been to mine out the low grade oxide ore first and then move on to the highly profitable underground high grade sulphidic ore at Centralny and Severny. The existing Centralny open pit oxide reserves are now exhausted and Asaukak oxides are close to being mined out. Production is still scheduled from the Vysokovoltnoye silver-gold heap leach deposit. It is also planned to construct new heap leach pads to produce gold from the numerous satellite oxide deposits on the mining lease. It is also planned to deepen existing Centralny pit to extract sulphide ore until the underground` ore becomes available in 2010.
Oxide Production
Oxide ore from Asaukak will in the short term continue to be fed to the existing plant The future plan is to treat the remaining lower grade oxide ores through a new one million tonnes a year gold heap leach plant from the last quarter of 2008. This will be constructed at the existing Asaukak mine and will be fed from the low grade stockpiles already mined. The heap leach plant will be semi-mobile and will be used in conjunction with the existing one million tonnes a year Vysokovoltnoye gold / silver heap leach plant over the next 20 years in order to mine out all the potential oxide reserves within the AGF licence area.
Sulphide Project
The existing Phase 1 oxides plant will be modified by the addition of flotation and bio-oxidation sections to treat the sulphide ore. Construction can be undertaken without significantly affecting existing production from the oxide plant due to the modular nature of the plant modifications. Underground mining will be trackless with the ore either being trucked or conveyed to the plant. First gold production from the underground Severny mine is expected in mid 2010.
Geographical Spread
Republic of Uzbekistan
Board of Directors and Key Management
| Richard Wilkins | Finance Director |
| John Donald | Chief Operating Officer |
| Richard Shead | Executive Chairman |
| Oliver Prior | Non-executive Director |
| Miradil Djalalov | Non-executive Director |
| James McBurney | Non Executive Director |
Company Address52 Charles Street
|
Additional Address/Key ContactMedia and Communications |
CapitalOrdinary Shares Issued and Outstanding: 386,062,860
|
Annual General MeetingDecember | Year End30 June |
Nominated BrokersFairfax IS Plc | Nominated AdvisorsFairfax IS Plc |
Major Shareholders
| RAB Special Situations (Master) Fund Limited | 104,619,858 | 27.20 |
| Zeromax GmbH | 68,533,797 | 17.82 |
| The Capital Group Companies Inc | 33,999,300 | 8.84 |
| L-R Managers LLC | 27,751,324 | 7.22 |
| Alpha Group | 25,372,074 | 6.60 |
| TNS Investments Ltd | 13,671,330 | 3.55 |
Related News
13/01/10 - Oxus Gold’s New Money Should Enable It To Have A 300,000 Ounce Per Year Operation Up And Running By 201116/09/09 - Oxus Gold Remains Confident Of Raising The Necessary Financing For It To Get Mining Underground At Amantaytau
24/06/09 - Oxus Gold Is Fairly Confident That It Can Raise The Money To Put Its Underground Sulphide Mine In Uzbekistan Into Production
26/01/09 - Status Report: It’s All Systems Go At Oxus Gold, Allowing For Certain Modifications And Adjustments
23/07/08 - Oxus Gold Lines Up A Reserve Of Two Million Ounces At Amantaytau
04/03/08 - Has Oxus Finally Put Its Troubles Behind It?
Most Recent Statement
11/02/10 - Amantaytau Goldfields Update07/01/10 - Proposed Financing
03/11/09 - Second Price Monitoring Extn
06/10/09 - Directors Shareholdings and Additional Listing
16/09/09 - Interim Results
28/08/09 - Price Monitoring Extension