Mining giant to continue exploration in RP

MANILA, Philippines - Mining giant Anglo American PLC will continue its exploration activities in the Philippines despite a falling out with local partner Philex Mining Corp.

Mines and Geosciences Bureau director Horacio Ramos said Anglo American has chosen to continue its exploration activities in the Philippines, this time in the Cordillera region.

Speaking at the sidelines of the two-day Mining Financial Forum jointly sponsored by the Chamber of Mines, the Philippine Stock Exchange and the Financial Executives of the Philippines, Ramos revealed that Anglo American has secured approval for a two-year extension of its exploration permit for its mining project in Apayao province.

Anglo American is going alone in its Cordillera project after giving up the Boyongan gold and copper mine joint project with Philex, he added.

Anglo American, the world’s fourth-largest diversified mining group, had backed out of the Boyongan project following pre-feasility studies which showed that the estimated capital and operating costs to explore the Boyongan mine in Surigao province in southern Mindanao would not produce an acceptable rate of return.

It had been bandied around that up to $1 billion would be needed to develop the Boyongan gold-copper mine.

Anglo American spent about $50 million on its pre-feasibility study on the Boyongan project.

Philex subsidiary Philex Gold, Inc., however, differed with Anglo American on the viability of the Boyongan project.

The Boyongan copper lode, one of the government’s 24 priority mining projects, has an estimated ore reserve of 300 million tons with 0.6 percent copper and one gram per ton of gold.