anvil in the philippines

Anvil heads to the Philippines
Rebecca Lawson
Thursday, 20 September 2007

Source: Miningnews.net

ANVIL Mining has spoken publicly for the first time about its new project in the Philippines where a third party has claimed two million ounces of gold is present.

Speaking at the 2007 Paydirt Asia-Pacific DownUnder Conference in Perth, vice president exploration Nick Franey said the company's move outside of the Democratic Republic of Congo to the Asian nation was in line with Anvil's strategy of managing high sovereign risks.

"The idea behind that strategy was that if you could manage your way through those sovereign risks then you are on to a winner," Franey said.

"I think the track record of Anvil over the last few years has proven we are able to do that.

"So we see the Philippines as, in terms of the factors I'm talking about, [having] high prospectivity, perceived country risk and reduced competitive interest; there's analogies to be drawn between the DRC and the Philippines.

"We see the Philippines as a country we can leverage what we believe is a competitive advantage of Anvil, one of our key strengths being to deliver projects in challenging environments."

Anvil's focus in the Philippines will be on the Itogon mine properties, north of the capital city Manila, which produced 1.34 million ounces of gold after 1926, before being placed on care and maintenance over the past decade.

"A third party has assessed the property over the course of the last few years. They claimed there was an additional 2 million ounces of gold still present at the mine," Franey said.

Franey stressed the figure was not JORC-compliant.

Anvil has four targets within its properties - Frog Vein, GW Breccia, Melones Area and Ampucau porphyry prospect.

The company aims to define a resource on Frog Vein to justify a feasibility study for a Stage 1 'low impact' underground mine to start as soon as possible.

Frog Vein - which has been partially mined - has a residual resource of 6.5 million tonnes at 3.6 grams per tonne gold for a contained 754,000oz, while the off-shoot Taka Barr Vein has a residual resource of 2.8Mt of 4.2gpt gold from a contained 378,000oz.

Anvil's entry into the country was announced last year when it made a deal with private company Itogon-Soyuc Resources, making a cash payment of $US2.12 million.

Under the deal, Anvil will fund exploration for a minimum of $2 million and will complete a feasibility study within the next two years. An additional cash payment of $500,000 will be made on the transfer of mineral licences.

Shares in Anvil climbed A39c to $20.25 in trading this morning.