Troubled OceanaGold (Philippines) Inc. may finally complete and secure by January next year the $185-million financing it needs to finance its continued mining operations for its Didipio copper-gold project.
Chito P. Gozar, vice president for communications of OceanaGold, said the firm has narrowed down talks to four entities and has secured investment bank Stanley Morgan as advisor.
Based on advisor Stanley Morgan’s recommendation, Gozar said, OceanaGold may enter into a joint venture, completely sell out or resort to borrowing to finance the continued operation of the Didipio copper-gold project.
Heavy operations at the Didipio mine site has been suspended since the middle of this year due to the lack of funding.
At the same time, the Australian mining firm has been beset with with other problems with the local government and community in Nueva Ecija.
The partial work stoppage of the Didipio project has pushed back OceanaGold’s commercial operation which had originally been targeted for the middle of 2009. — Marianne Go