Philex Mining acquires 5% of Lepanto

Manila, Philippines - Philex Mining Corp. has acquired a five-percent stake in Lepanto Consolidated Mining Corp.

In a press briefing yesterday, Philex chairman Manuel V. Pangilinan announced that they had acquired a total of 2,161,240,180 shares of Lepanto at a price of 66 centavos per share for a total cost of P1,426,418, 934.60.

The shares were acquired from First Metro Investment Corp. and Bank of the Philippine Islands.

With the five-percent stake in Lepanto, Philex indirectly acquires interest in Lepanto’s Far Southeast gold project.

Pangilinan said the Lepanto acquisition has nothing to do with its still uncompleted joint venture agreement with Lepanto subsidiary Manila Mining Corp.

Philex is entering into a joint venture operating agreement with Manila Mining covering 286 hectares of Manila Mining’s Kalayaan copper gold project in Surigao del Norte which is contiguous with Philex’s Silangan (formerly Boyongan) project.

Pangilinan said Philex may spend up to $1 billion to sustain the mine’s projected 20-year life.

Philex is yet to complete a feasibility study for the project. It expects to spend an initial $800 million to develop the mine, with commercial operation target either at the end of 2015 or early 2016.

The targeted annual production of the Silangan mine is 107 million pounds (mlb) of copper and 165,000 ounces (koz) of gold.

Intended production is 30,000 tons of ore per day.

Meanwhile, Pangilinan said Philex is planning to extend up to 2020 the operation of its Padcal mine in Benguet.

Philex expects to invest an additional P1 billion, mainly for waste management and to retool its existing plant and equipment.

With continuing high metal prices, Pangilinan expressed confidence that Philex would “likely exceed it’s core income last year of P4 billion.”