San Miguel putting up new Surigao power plant

MANILA, Philippines – The San Miguel Group is planning to build a 600-megawatt (MW) power plant to provide power to its upcoming nickel processing plant in Surigao del Norte as well as its host community, its top official said.

Top Frontier Investment Holdings Inc., the parent firm of San Miguel Corp. (SMC), is mulling a $1.5-billion nickel processing plant in Surigao del Norte.

SMC chairman Ramon Ang said the nickel plant would need to have a ready power supply of as much as 450 MW.

“What we’re building is a power plant that will serve our own requirements, I hope, when we put up nickel plant in Nonoc…we (would) need 450 MW,” he said.

Apart from serving the nickel plant’s requirements, SMC would also be allotting supply for the needs of the province, Ang said.

The SMC official said the power plant would cost around $900 million which would be financed through equity and bank loans.

SMC has already applied for the necessary requirements and once cleared by regulators, the company can finish the power plant in three years, he said.

“Once we get the ECC (environmental compliance certificate) to build the smelter plant and power plant, (the power facility can be finished) in 36 months,” Ang said.

Top Frontier said last year it was in talks with several firms as possible equipment suppliers for the nickel project in Surigao del Norte under its mining unit Clariden Holdings Inc.

For the Nonoc Nickel project, Clariden holds mining rights over 23,877 hectares in the island of Nonoc, Hanigad and Awasan Surigao City.