Nickel Asia eyes 20% sales growth this year

MANILA, Philippines - Nickel Asia Corp., the country’s biggest nickel miner and partly owned by Sumitomo Corp. of Japan, is eyeing a 20 percent growth in sales volume this year, on improving nickel prices.

Nickel Asia president and chief executive officer Gerard Birmo told reporters that the company is looking to sell around 10 million tons of ore this year, with 60 percent going to China and the rest to Japan. The company sold a record 8.3 million tons last year.

“China has become a major stainless steel producer so there is a lot of demand for nickel pig iron,” Brimo said.

China accounts for over a third of global nickel consumption. The Philippines competes with Indonesia in Asia in nickel supply.

Nickel Asia operates four lateritic nickel mines at its Rio Tuba, Taganito, Cagdianao and Taganaan sites.

The Rio Tuba nickel mining site is located near the southern tip of Palawan in the southwest portion of the country while Taganito mine is located at the province of Surigao del Norte in the northeast corner of Mindanao.

Cagdianao mine, on the other hand, is situated at the Dinagat Islands while the Taganaan mine lies approximately 25 kilometers to the east of Surigao City off the northern end of Mindanao.

Brimo said the company is currently developing the $1.4- billion Taganito hydrometallurgical nickel processing plant which is expected to be operational by the second half of 2013.

The plant has an annual capacity of 30,000 tons contained nickel and 2,600 tons contained cobalt and is currently considered to be the single largest investment in the Philippine mining sector.