MacroAsia to spin off mining business into new corporation

MacroAsia Corp., the aviation-related services company of tycoon Lucio Tan, is considering forming a new corporation to oversee its growing mining operations.

“We’re looking at the possibility of spinning off our mining business into a new corporation,” said MacroAsia president Joseph Chua.

The Supreme Court recently affirmed in favor of MacroAsia the mining rights over a 1,114-hectare property at Brooke’s Point in western Palawan.

MacroAsia’s mining rights were earlier contested by Blue Ridge Minerals Corp. and Celestial Nickel Mining Corp. allegedly due to the Tan-owned firm’s failure to fulfill its obligations as stipulated in the contracts awarded in 2005 by then Environment Secretary Mike Defensor.

The Supreme Court, however, found no merit in Blue Ridge and Celestial’s claims as it agreed with the Court of Appeals’ ruling that the Department of Environment and Natural Resources has the exclusive authority to approve, cancel and revoke mineral agreements.

MacroAsia has  seven mining lease contracts with the DENR.

In March 2006, MacroAsia signed an agreement with China’s Jinchuan Group Ltd and JCP Geo-ex Services to further explore its mine in Palawan.

Jinchuan is the largest producer of nickel and cobalt in China.

MacroAsia late last year also signed a memorandum of understanding with London Stock Exchange-listed Toledo Mining on a proposed joint development of the Infanta nickel project and the adjoining Celestial nickel project in Brooke’s Point.

The Infanta nickel deposit extends across the common boundary of the contiguous mineral production sharing agreement areas held by MacroAsia and Toledo. Both MacroAsia and Toledo have been drilling and test pitting their respective areas to define the extent of the nickel laterite mineralization.