THE Philippines’ biggest mining company plans to expand overseas.
Manuel Pangilinan, Philex Mining Corp. chairman, told reporters the firm was looking at acquiring a coal and gold mine in metal-rich Indonesia.
Indonesia is the third largest thermal coal exporter after Australia and South Africa, producing significant quantities of gold. The Southeast Asian country has the world’s seventh biggest gold reserve with resources estimated around 6,369 tons and with mineable reserve approximately 3,254 tons.
Philex expects earnings to be better than last year after its profit hit a record P3.22 billion in the first six months of this year, rising 231.6 percent from P965 million in the same period last year.
Pangilinan said the company would come out with its full-year profit guidance after the release of its third quarter performance.
“We update it depending on gold and copper prices, but it will be ahead of last year,” he said.
Philex recently announced that the life of the Padcal copper-gold mine in Benguet was extended for another three years from September 2017 to December 2020 based on evaluation of its reserves of 85.6 million tons at end-June.
The company said the reserves form part of the mine’s total resources, which are estimated at 147 million tons as of the same date. This means 61.4 million in additional tons of ore have the possibility of being converted into reserves after 2020.
Philex earlier acquired a five percent stake in Lepanto Consolidated Mining Co. for P1.43 billion, providing the former an avenue to participate in the Far Southeast Gold Project as an investment opportunity for growth.
Also, Philex’s investment in Manila Mining Corp. could bring additional resource to the 393 million tons of the Silangan Project, which contains the combined Boyongan-Bayugo gold and copper deposit worth at least $22 billion.
Philex shares lost P0.15 to close at P26.55 each on Friday.
