Editor's Note: Mining Journal is making some of its most important coverage of the COVID-19 pandemic freely available to readers. For more coverage, please see our COVID-19 hub. To subscribe to Mining Journal, click here

The miner said its operations were continuing and it was able to ship copper concentrate by road.

Anglo Asian said it had shipped the gold to MKS Finance SA and could receive 90% - net of the Azerbaijan government's 12.75% share - of the estimated gold content upon arrival at MKS in an advance payment of sale proceeds.

CEO Reza Vaziri said the shipment demonstrated the company's agility despite the operational problems presented by COVID-19.

"The Swiss refiners have recently announced that they expect to shortly resume limited working and we are currently ascertaining when we can commence further shipments," he said.

The company said it was also in discussion with two other refiners in the region to provide an alternative channel for the refining and sale of its gold and silver bullion.

The miner had last month maintained its 2020 production guidance of 75,000-80,000oz gold-equivalent, due to production continuing at its Gedabek and Gosha operations.

Yesterday it said its operations at Gedabek continued and it "now put in place various stringent measures to ensure all staff are isolated as far as practical from all sources of infection".

It would provide a further update on operations in the first quarter production update in mid-April.

Its shares closed 5.26% higher yesterday to 110p to capitalise it at £125.8 million (US$155 million).