As prices improve, firms scramble to develop sites
MANILA, Philippines – Prospects of mining firms are looking up as the price of gold continues to improve, according to government and company officials.
“Gold is the most viable of all the precious metals now,” Mines and Geosciences Bureau (MGB) director Horacio Ramos said in an interview. “I can understand why mining companies are very bullish to get their hands on a gold find.”
Gold currently sells for about $939 an ounce.
A company working to develop its gold project fast is Eldore Mining Corp., which has a lease for the Nalesbitan gold mine in Labo, Camarines Norte.
The company is raising $7 million to develop the mine site and build a processing plant for producing gold bullion.
According to a company official, Nalesbitan has potential gold resource of 493,000 ounces.
Australia-listed Royalco Resources Ltd., meanwhile, is set to spend $1 million a year for each of its gold-copper projects in the country. These are located in Benguet, Cebu and Nueva Vizcaya.
“We’re spending at least $1 million per project, but we can always add more if we find data that could lead us to a gold find. We’re funding our projects ourselves. Unlike other companies, we have royalties from agreements we have back in Australia,” Royalco Phils. Inc. country manager Joey Nelson R. Ayson said.
He added the company was earning as much as $5 million from mining royalties, “enough to fund our current activities.”
Also, Sagittarius Mines Inc. (SMI) is set to conduct a $74-million feasibility study to further evaluate the Tampakan copper-gold project near General Santos City after getting formal investor approval.
The partners in the Tampakan project are Switzerland’s Xstrata Copper (62.5 percent) through local unit SMI, Indophil Resources NL (34.23 percent) and Alsons Corp. (3.27 percent).
SMI has already signed up Bechtel to be the lead engineer for the $74-million study which will be submitted to the government by the second quarter of 2010.–Riza T. Olchondra, Philippine Daily Inquirer
March –
IT’S WOMEN’S MONTH!
“Respect and support women
every day of the year/s!”
Invoke Article 33 of the ILO Constitution
against the military junta in Myanmar
to carry out the recommendations of the 2021 ILO Commission of Inquiry
against serious violations of protocols of
Forced Labour and Freedom of Association.
Accept the National Unity Government (NUG)
of Myanmar. Reject Military!
#WearMask #WashHands
#Report Corruption #SearchPosts #TakePicturesVideos
Monthly Observances:
Women’s Role in History Month
Weekly Observances:
Week 1: Environmental Week;
Women’s Week
Week 3: Philippine Industry and “
Made-in-the-Philippines Products Week
Last Week: Protection and Gender-Fair Treatment
of the Girl Child Week
Daily Observances:
March 8: Women’s Rights and
International Peace Day;
National Women’s Day
March 4: Employee Appreciation Day
March 15: World Consumer Rights Day
March 18: Global Recycling Day
March 21: International Day for the Elimination
of Racial Discrimination
March 23: International Day for the Right to the Truth
Concerning Gross Human Rights Violations
and for the Dignity of Victims
March 25: International Day of Remembrance of the
Victims of Slavery and the Transatlantic Slave Trade
March 27: Earth Hour
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit. Ut elit tellus, luctus nec ullamcorper mattis, pulvinar dapibus leo.
