philex in due diligence

IRN or Oceana Gold, looks to me like Oceana is just a smoke screen ... make up your own mind.

http://business.inquirer.net/money/topstories/view/20100919-293221/Philex-begins-due-diligence-on-two-prospects


Philex begins due diligence on two prospects

Philippine Daily Inquirer
First Posted 22:13:00 09/19/2010

Filed Under: Mining and quarrying, Contracts
MANILA, Philippines?Philex Mining Corp., the country?s biggest miner, has started studying the feasibility of acquiring a stake in the $5.2-billion Tampakan mining project in South Cotabato and/or the Didipio gold-copper project in Nueva Vizcaya.

At the sidelines of the 2010 Philippine Mining Conference, Philex president and COO Jose Ernesto C. Villaluna Jr. said that although no commitment had been made yet, this plan formed part of the company?s thrust to expand its mining portfolio. The firm, he said, was doing due diligence in the two prospects.

?(Philex) is constantly looking at all investment opportunities and projects that it may be able to enter into not only in the Philippines but also overseas. Tampakan is one such possibility,? Villaluna had said.

Villaluna told reporters that Philex was looking at acquiring the 37.5-percent stake of Indophil Resources NL in Tampakan. This stake has been on the market since a $473-million buyout deal with Zijin Mining Group Co., China?s largest gold producer, was terminated in late June due to ?uncertainties.?

The remaining 62.5 percent is held by Xstrata Copper, through a local subsidiary Sagittarius Mines Inc.

Tampakan is reputedly the largest undeveloped copper and gold deposit in Southeast Asia and potentially the fourth-largest copper-gold project in the world. However, plans to proceed with the project has been delayed due largely to the opposition lodged by various groups and concerned local governments.

For the Didipio prospect, Villaluna said the company needed to further evaluate the mining project as he admitted that in terms of reserves, the Didipio prospect was not as huge as the Tampakan prospect, which was seen holding some two billion tons of copper and gold.

The development at the Didipio gold and copper project ?remains under care and maintenance,? meaning a reduced workforce is maintained at the project site, as OceanaGold threshes out issues with the local government and on funding requirements.

Amy R. Remo