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Company Information for Oxus Gold Plc

Company stock charts - 12 Month chart

Exchange AIM; OXS


View full financial data

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.

The Amantaytau district forms the western part of the Tien Shan geosynclinal-orogenic system within which lies the metallogenic province known as the “Tien Shan Gold Belt” which extends from China in the east, through Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan into Uzbekistan.  Within Uzbekistan, the belt is subdivided into three gold bearing sub-provinces: Kyzylkum, Chatkal-Kuraman and Samarkand. The deposits of the Amantaytau district fall within the central part of the Kyzylkum sub-province.

The area has been further subdivided into several structural domains. The Zarafshan-Turkestan structural formation hosts the most significant occurrences of gold mineralisation and silver including the Amantaytau, Daugystau and Vysokovoltnoye deposits, and one of the world’s largest gold deposits at Muruntau.

Oxide Ore
Mining commenced in February 2004 from open pits on Amantaytau Centralny oxide ores followed by the Asaukak deposit in late 2006. Gold is recovered in a Carbon-In-Pulp (CIP) processing plant. Silver is also produced from a heap leach pad and Merril Crow recovery circuit at the Vysokovoltnoye deposit. Oxide reserves at the Centralny pit will be exhausted at the end of 2007 and Asaukak is nearing depletion. The future will focus on the deeper sulphides, the Vysokovoltnoye heap leach silver deposits and on heap leach pads to mine low grade oxide ores from numerous satellite deposits.  Overall 23 oxide deposits are included in the Mineral Resources or Ore Reserves for the year ended June 2007 as well as 7 exploration targets. Ongoing exploration will focus on upgrading these resources to reserves and converting exploration targets into resources.

Sulphide

Mineral Resources and Ore Reserves and the forward strategy are discussed in the “Geology and Exploration Report for Year Ended 30th June 2007” and the section on “Ore Reserves and Mineral Resources for Year Ended June 2007” which are both on this website. Details on the proposed mining and metallurgical plan for the sulphides and the balance of oxides throughout the lease area are also discussed in the “Annual Report for the Year ended 30th June 2007” which is also on this website.

Operations
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
A feasibility study on the underground sulphides project was completed by Wardell Armstrong International (WAI) in September 2005 and a new base case is close to completion which will increase the gold output significantly. The bankable feasibility on the new case will be completed by WAI during the first quarter of 2008.

First gold production is expected from project in the second half of 2009 by deepening the existing Centralny open pit mine to access the sulphidic ores below the current level, while the primary underground access for Severny is being developed. The expanded pit design will incorporate access for the underground declines from the pit bottom, thereby reducing the length of the declines and allowing them to be developed in more solid ground which will reduce support costs.

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

Uzbekistan; Amantaytau Goldfields

Uzbekistan; Vysokovoltnoye silver and gold deposit


Board of Directors and Key Management

Richard WilkinsChief Executive Officer
Jonathan KippsChief Financial Officer / Secretary
John DonaldChief Operating Officer
Douglas SutherlandNon-executive Director
Oliver PriorNon-executive Director
Miradil DjalalovNon-executive Director
Richard SheadNon Executive Director

Company Address

105 Piccadilly
London, United Kingdom W1J 7NS

Telephone:+44 20 7 907 2000
Facsimile:+44 20 7 907 2001
Email:enquiries[at]oxusgold.co.uk
Website:http://www.oxusgold.co.uk

Capital

Ordinary Shares Issued and Outstanding: 381,439,685

Annual General Meeting

December

Year End

30 June

Nominated Brokers

Canaccord Adams
Cardinal place
7th Floor
80 Victoria street
London, SW1E 5JL

Nominated Advisors

Canaccord Adams
Cardinal place
7th Floor
80 Victoria street
London, SW1E 5JL

Broker/Analyst Reports

25/07/06 - RBC Capital Markets

Major Shareholders

RAB Special Situations Fund 27%
Zeromax Alliance Partner 18%
Capital Group9%
LR Global 8%
Alpha Group 7%

Related News

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?
08/11/07 - Oxus Gold Will Be Focusing On Uzbekistan in 2008 With Help From Zeromax
21/03/07 - Oxus Gold Has A Powerful Friend In KazakhGold And A Brighter Future

Most Recent Statement

07/11/08 - Price Monitoring Extension
06/11/08 - Notice of AGM: Board Changes
06/11/08 - BFS - Increases in Gold Reserves
13/10/08 - Director/PDMR Shareholding
24/09/08 - Interim Results for the twelve months ended 30 June 2008
25/06/08 - Second Price Monitoring Extn

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