Vulcan eyes jv with Canada’s TVI on Leyte minesite

Vulcan Industrial & Mining Corp. is exploring a possible joint venture with Canada-based TVI Resource Development Philippines Inc. for mining exploration in Leyte.

In a disclosure to the Philippine Stock Exchange, Vulcan said it signed a confidentiality agreement with TVI for the later to review and evaluate mining data concerning the Panaon gold mines and properties.

Vulcan said the site covers about 1,644 hectares located at Panaon Island, Southern Leyte.

TVI is a publicly-listed Canadian mining company focused on the exploration and production of precious and base metals from high margin projects located in the Philippines and China.

Vulcan earlier said it might open a gold processing plant if its Panaon gold project continues to yield positive results.

On March 9, 2005, Vulcan was granted an exploration permit by the government, allowing it to explore gold mining claims in Panaon.

Vulcan is engaged mainly in oil and mineral exploration. One of its successful ventures is a concrete aggregates project in Rodriguez Rizal, which it has spun off into a joint venture company, Vulcan Materials Corp.

TVI’s most advanced project, the Canatuan mine, is a polymetallic, gold, silver, copper and zinc-rich volcanogenic massive sulphide orebody which has been put into operation as the first foreign-financed mine in the Philippines in recent years.

The company has made applications for exploration rights covering 1,257 square kilometers of properties situated in a new mineral district located on the Zamboanga peninsula in the southern Philippines, approximately 75 kilometers to the north-east of TVI’s Canatuan mine.

TVI’s expansion plans for 2007 include the construction of a sulphide flotation plant at Canatuan to process both copper and zinc concentrates from the sulphide zone.

Last year, Vulcan signed a similar agreement with Phelps Dodge Exploration Corp., one of the world’s leading copper and gold producers, to verify the potential of its mining property in the northern province of Isabela, a copper-gold mineral claim.