Highlights from drilling in the Gedabek contract area, which hosts three mines, included high-grade intersections at the underground Gadir mine, proving up lateral and down-dip extensions to the orebody. Anglo Asian has also confirmed the presence of a gold quartz vein at its Gilar discovery, located in the same contract area.

Data gathered in the drilling campaign will be used in an updated mineral resource and reserve estimate for Gedabek, due to be released later in 2020.

Analysts at SP Angel said the exploration update showed "good progress on a number of fronts" across the land package.

"The company is well positioned to continue to de-risk extensive underexplored land holding and establish a pipeline of projects for future organic growth supported by debt-free balance sheet and strong free cash flow generation," SP Angel said in a note on Monday.

In terms of extending mine life, Anglo Asian said it was "in a very strong position with significant exploration upside at all three of its contract areas".

"The exploration programmes are being designed to be rolled out to allow time for "dovetailing" exploration results into resources and ultimately reserves to extend the current life of mine. The company is confident that the resources will yield extensions of operations to provide significant shareholder upside from the metal in the ground being converted to revenue," Anglo Asian said.

Stephen Westhead, Anglo Asian's director of geology and mining, said 2020 would see the company "actively continue our exploration programmes to capitalise on the significant potential upside which we believe exists across our portfolio".