Atlas Consolidated Mining and Development Corp the Philippines' second-largest miner, plans to increase copper concentrate production at its Toledo mine as it ships more of the concentrate to China, the company said on Tuesday.
Encouraged by higher prices, some metals producers worldwide are reopening mines and expanding capacity in anticipation of a pick-up in demand as the global economy mends.
Atlas said it planned to increase mining and milling production rate at its Toledo mine in central Cebu province to 35,000 tonnes per day (tpd) this month from 20,000 tonnes (tpd) at present.
"Forward planning and development activities are well under way to increase production to 42,000 tpd by mid-2010, and approximately 50,000 tpd by the second quarter of 2011," Atlas said in a statement to Manila's stock exchange.
Copper prices in London MCU3 touched a 10-month high of $6,070 a tonne on Tuesday, and nearly doubled values this year, thanks to firm Chinese demand and signs the world economy is pulling out of recession.
Atlas said it has shipped 37,832.26 wet metric tons (wmt) of copper concentrate so far to China, for processing as part of a 60,000-tonne supply deal with Swiss firm MRI Trading. Further shipments, totalling 11,000 wmt, are expected this month.
Operations at the Toledo mine, estimated to have deposits of 874 million tonnes of copper ore with an average grade of 0.41 percent, resumed in July last year after a 14-year hiatus due to lack of funding to repair damage caused by typhoons.
Source: Reuters
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