Australian mining company to expand RP operations

Lafayette Mining Ltd., an Australian publicly-listed company is raising $4 million or about P216 million to expand the mining activities of its local unit, Lafayette Philippines Inc. (LPI).

Company officials said in a recent disclosure to the Australian Stock Exchange (ASE) that it has retained Haywood Securities to raise $4 million through a placement of 20 million shares at 20 cents per share with overseas institutional and professional investors.

Lafayette Mining managing director Andrew Mcllwain said the bulk of the proceeds will go into funding other prospective mining sites in the Philippines while the rest will be used to accelerate its Rapu-Rapu polymettalic project in the island of Rapu-Rapu, Albay. "The Lafayette board recently approved a substantial exploration budget for systematic evaluation of key areas and work started on Hixbar and Linaoaras, both close to the current development. In addition to the regional exploration program, the board is keen to see Lafayette capitalize on its success with the development of Rapu-Rapu and in-country expertise and we will be focusing rapidly on expanding our portfolio in the Philippines," Mcllwain said in the ASE disclosure.

Lafayette’s local unit previously disclosed it was spending an initial $42 million for the Rapu-Rapu polymettalic project.

Rod Watt, Philippine country manager of LPI said the company is close to completing its mill plant and is scheduled to start commercial operations by May or June this year. He said the mine area of 4,663 hectares has estimated combined reserves of 5.9 million MT of copper, gold, silver and zinc.

LPI is the first new foreign-funded mine in nine years and as such, has secured pre-eminent position in the local industry which when in full production, will rank alongside major Philippine mining companies.

The Rapu-Rapu resources is estimated to have a mine life of six years and can yield 10,000 MT of copper concentrates, 14,000 MT of zinc concentrates, 50,000 ounces of gold and 600,000 ounces of silver annually.

The Rapu-Rapu project is financed through a syndicate of banks that include NM Rothschild & Sons (Australia) Ltd., Australia and New Zealand Banking Group Ltd. and ABN AMRO Bank NV (Australian Branch), Investec Bank (Mauritius) Ltd. and Korea First Finance Ltd.

Lafayette also secured the support of LG International (LGI) and KORES, the Korean government resources investment entity, which subscribed $10 million in equity and quasi equity to the project and now hold 26 percent of LPI. In return, LPI secured life-of-mine offtake agreements for both the copper and zinc concentrate production.

Lafayette acquired its interest in the Rapu copper-gold-zinc-silver project located on the island of Rapu Rapu 1996 and carried out an extensive drilling program in 2000.