Philippine Metals Corp. will start exploring its copper project in Leyte in one to two months following the Environment department’s approval of its exploration permit last month.
"At the moment we have the exploration permit issued by the Environment department," Tom Vaillancourt, vice-president for operations of Philippine Metals, said in a phone interview.
"[The Taurus project] was a mine site many years ago ... nobody has worked in the area for a long time so we have to do exploration first."
Philippine Metals will spend $100,000 to explore the 9,895-hectare Taurus mine in Tacloban, Leyte. "After that, we would be starting the second phase and commit more funds to that," Mr. Vaillancourt said.
Exploration data from 1970 showed an estimated reserve of 4.5 million metric tons of ore at a grade of 2.26% copper.
"Negotiation of an offtake agreement for the [copper] concentrate, coupled with mine financing is envisioned as the ideal scenario," the miner said on its Web site.
Meanwhile, the Dilong copper property in the municipality of Tubo in Abra has yet to be explored pending approval of the Environment department.
Preliminary reports pegged the Dilong reserves at 40 million metric tons of ore with average grades of 0.5% copper and possibly 0.5 grams of gold per metric ton.
Meanwhile, the miner is also waiting for a permit to explore the 971-hectare Malitao copper property in the town of Calanasan in Apayao. The firm plans to spend $200,000 for the exploration.
"The local government unit is very cooperative and also the Environment department ... I would like to see [the exploration permit] at the end of the year," he said.
The company’s exploration strategy is to define the ore body "then sign an offtake agreement with an Asian metal refiner to purchase the concentrate."
Mr. Vaillancourt said that by the time the company completes its exploration, copper prices would have recovered.
Copper prices for cash buyers have risen to $2.38 per pound from $1.99/lb. a month ago and $1.45/lb. early this year, data from the London Metal Exchange showed. However, current prices are still lower than year-ago level of $3.71/lb. given thin demand due to the economic slowdown.
"I expect copper prices to be higher than what it is now. With the development of electric cars, motors and housing, copper is going to be in demand," Mr. Vaillancourt said.
Philippine Metals expects to list on the Philippine and Toronto stock exchanges when the capital markets recover. "There is no immediate plan to do so. But after the exploration, we will probably list," he said.
Source: Business World Online
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