Aim-listed Chaarat has produced 15 175 gold-equivalent ounces (GEOs) in the third quarter, an increase of 8.7% on the second quarter’s output but 0.4% lower on that produced in the third quarter of 2019.

This places the company on track to achieve its full-year guidance of 55 000 GEOs.

The company’s third-quarter production comprised 8 177 oz of gold, 150 767 oz of silver, 578 t of copper and 1 825 t of zinc.

However, given ongoing unrest in Armenia and the Covid-19 situation in general, Chaarat is regularly reviewing its ability to meet guidance.

The company confirms that international powers have started facilitating talks between Armenia and Azerbaijan to end an escalation in hostilities in the region.

For years, the leaders of the two countries agreed to postpone discussions about the status of the disputed territory of Nagorno-Karabakh to avoid inflaming passions, but that changed recently when Armenia’s Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan declared the area "indisputably Armenian".

Azerbaijan, which had been in a dispute with Armenia over the region in the 1990s, responded with explosive force and a war started breaking out in September.

Meanwhile, the political situation in Kyrgyz has stabilised, says Chaarat, with an acting President and Prime Minister having been appointed. The country had been struggling with unrest since early October, when a contested election was subsequently annulled.

An interim government is in place in the country until Presidential and Parliamentary elections planned for early next year.

Chaarat has an operating mine called Kapan Gold in Armenia and assets at various stages of development in the Kyrgyz Republic.

The company completed a drilling programme on the Tulkubash oxide gold project, in Kyrgyz, during the third quarter, with results expected by the end of October. The drilling will form part of an updated mineral resource estimate for the project.

The company is also progressing preparation work for a heap leach facility at Tulkubash, and will publish an updated bankable feasibility study to reflect the advances in detailed engineering, design and construction, and environmental and social studies that had been carried out since 2017 and 2019, respectively.

Chaarat wants to close financing on the project during the first half of next year, after considering two nonbinding term sheets it received during the quarter from international groups.