indophil eyes more philippine gold

Reuters
Posted at 09/15/2011 8:03 PM | Updated as of 09/15/2011 8:03 PM
MANILA, Philippines - Australian miner Indophil Resources NL is exploring for more gold projects in the Philippines even as it awaits regulatory approvals with partner, Xstrata Plc , for the $5.9 billion Tampakan mine in the country, a senior company official said on Thursday.

The company is not giving up its stake in the Tampakan project, Southeast Asia's largest undeveloped copper-gold prospect, after it considered selling it last year, said Tony Robbins, Indophil's representative in Southeast Asia.

"We are exploring independently other properties in the Philippines. We are looking at some properties in the northern Philippines," Robbins told Reuters on the sidelines of a mining conference in Manila. "This is a good place to explore."

Indophil has spent about $2.4 million in the past two years for an ongoing gold exploration project in Itogon in the northern Benguet province. The mine, previously owned by a local miner, had produced 1.22 million ounces of gold in two phases that ran from the 1920s to the 1990s.

"We will undertake a major assessment of the results at the end of this year," Robbins said regarding Itogon, adding that initial data looked "encouraging."

The company is also looking at the Manat gold and zinc prospect in the southern Mindanao province, he said.

Indophil, partly owned by Philippine conglomerate San Miguel Corp., has a 37.5% interest in the Tampakan project, Southeast Asia's largest undeveloped copper-gold prospect.

The project, majority owned by global miner Xstrata, is currently under threat from a ban on open-pit mining imposed by the local government of South Cotabato province in the southern Philippines.

"Indophil has raised enough funds to meet the requirements for Tampakan," said Robbins, who sits on the board of Sagittarius Mines Inc, Xstrata's local affiliate for the Tampakan project.

Asked if Indophil was still looking at giving up its stake in Tampakan, Robbins said: "No. Absolutely not."

Last year, Indophil put its stake in Sagittarius up for sale after China's Zijin Mining dropped a takeover offer for the Australian company.

The Tampakan mine is estimated to contain 13.5 million tons of copper and 15.8 million ounces of gold, at a grade of 0.6% copper and 0.2 grams per tonne of gold. Sagittarius is looking to begin producing copper and gold at Tampakan by 2016.

Robbins said construction activities at the Tampakan mine were set to begin in the last quarter of 2012, if the project gets regulatory approval.