Philex shipments up 8% to P805 million in January

MANILA, Philippines - Philex Mining Corp., the country’s largest miner, said the total value of ore produced in January this year reached P805 million, up eight percent from P745 million the previous year-period.

In a disclosure to the Philippine Stock Exchange yesterday, Philex president Jose Ernesto C. Villaluna Jr. said the mine delivered 684,459 dry metric tons (DMT) of ore resulting to 4,705 DMT of concentrates.

Villaluna said the concentrates contained 55.17 grams per DMT of gold, 24.96 percent copper and 57.09 grams per DMT of silver or about 8,354 ounces of gold, 2.59 million pounds of copper and 8,636 ounces of silver.

In January last year, Philex produced 752,261 DMT of ore resulting in 6,122 DMT of copper concentrates averaging 61.6 grams per DMT of gold, 23.81 percent copper, and 60.03 grams per DMT of silver or about 12,134 ounces of gold, 3.21 million pounds of copper and 11,817 ounces of silver.

The estimated value of the month’s production was based on provisional metal prices of $1,081 per ounce of gold, $3.11 per pound of copper and $16.29 per ounce of silver at the exchange rate of P46.743 to the dollar.

Of the total metal value, P422 million is from gold, P376 million from copper and P7 million from silver. The growth is mainly due to higher metal prices.

Philex has announced that 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.

According to Philex, the Padcal mine has reserves of 74 million tons, at assumed metal prices of $800 per ounce of gold and $2.00 per pound of copper and at copper equivalent cut-off of 0.36 percent.

The firm is also 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.

Villaluna said the Bayugo mineral deposit is a porphyry-hosted copper gold occurrence in an island-arc setting, located within areas about one kilometer northwest of the Boyongan copper gold deposit.

Boyongan and Bayugo are within the Silangan property in which Philex has a 50 percent interest (purchased earlier from Anglo American) and the other 50 percent is held by 81 percent-owned Canadian unit Philex Gold Inc.

Philex said external consultants of Philex Gold and in-house geologists of Philex Mining have estimated a cut-off grade of 0.4 percent copper based on drilling and assay results from 43 exploration holes available on Sept. 30, 2009.

The Bayugo deposit is now comparable to the Boyongan deposit, which was previously announced at 104 million DMT of measured and 19.8 million DMT of Inferred resource.

Philex and Philex Gold have deployed 11 drill rigs in the Bayugo area to hasten the step-out and in-fill drilling to elevate the status of inferred resources to the Indicated category which is necessary for the completion of the pre-feasibility study.