Anglo Asian Mining plans to start work at the Gosha gold mine in Azerbaijan in the second half of 2012 after the successful launch of production at the neighbouring Gedabek mine, the company said in a statement on Thursday.

Anglo Asia Mining increased its gold production in Azerbaijan by 0.4 percent year-on-year to 28,610 ounces in the first half of 2011 from 28,493 ounces in the same period last year.

Gosha gold mine was discovered in February 2011, but its estimated reserves have not been announced.

The company began gold production at the Gedabek gold and copper mine, 350 km west of the capital Baku, in July 2009.

The AIM-listed company is controlled by R.V. Investment Group Services and the Azeri government owns a 49-percent stake.

The company said it produced 67,267 ounces of gold at Gedabek in 2010 and planned to produce over 60,000 ounces in 2011. According to the state statistics service, production in 2010 was 1.9 tonnes.

The company plans to extract a total of 22 tonnes of gold from Gedabek. It envisages exploration of seven mines in western Azerbaijan with estimated gold reserves of 430 tonnes.

Azerbaijan said last year it expected to boost its gold production six-fold to 7.0 tonnes per year by 2014 mainly thanks to increasing production at Gedabek.

Gold Copper Investment Gold