Philex shipments of precious metals up 36% in November

MANILA, Philippines - Copper-gold producer Philex Mining Corp. said its total shipments in November grew 36.3 percent to P838 million due to higher metal prices in the world market.

In a disclosure to the Philippine Stock Exchange, Philex president Jose Ernesto Villaluna Jr. said the shipment’s value is based on provisional metal prices of P438 million from gold, P392 million from copper and P7 million from silver.

The latest shipment brings the total estimated value of Philex shipments in the first 11 months of the year to P8.6 billion as world metal prices continue to recover.

The value of the firm’s monthly shipments has been steadily rising since the start of the year.

Philex’s shipment consisted of 5,027 dry metric tons (DMT) of concentrates from its Padcal copper-gold mine in Benguet containing about 8,177 ounces of gold, 2.71 million pounds of copper, and 8,647 ounces of silver last month.

In November last year, Philex shipped 5,042 DMT of concentrates containing 10,445 ounces of gold and 2.7 million pounds of silver. The firm did not report the value of the small silver content of last year’s shipments.

Philex earlier said its Padcal mine’s projected operating life has been extended by another three years, from the previously declared 2014 to 2017, based on the proved reserves of the mine as of June 30, 2009.

The firm said the Padcal mine has reserves of 74 million tons, at assumed metal prices of $800 per ounce of gold and $2 per pound of copper and at copper equivalent cut-off of 0.36 percent.

Philex is accelerating exploration activities in its Bayugo prospect in Tubod, Surigao del Norte after initial mineral resource estimate showed 85.7 million DMT of indicated resource and 32.7 million DMT of inferred resource.

The Bayugo deposit is now comparable to the Boyongan deposit, also located in Surigao, which was previously announced at 104 million dmt of measured and 19.8 million dmt of inferred resource.