Alcantara transfers ownership of Indophil to Alsons Consolidated

MANILA, Philippines - The Alcantara family is transferring ownership interest in Australian mining firm Indophil Resources NL from privately-held Alsons Corp. to its publicly-listed holding firm Alsons Consolidated Resources Corp. (ACR).

In a disclosure to the Philippine Stock Exchange, ACR said its board approved the purchase of 29.1 million shares of Indophil, equivalent to six percent of the Australian mining company.

Indophil owns 37.5 percent of the $5.2-billion Tampakan copper-gold project in South Cotabato, Mindanao.

Tomas Alcantara, chairman of ACR, said the move is part of the company’s plan to boost its revenue share in the future from other businesses such as mining and property development.

ACR currently derives revenues from its power and energy business segment.

The sale of Alson Corp.’s shares to ACR will be executed via a crossing of the shares off-market in the Australian Stock Exchange.

The purchase of the Indophil shares brings an indirect ownership interest for ACR in the Tampakan copper-gold project. It shall likewise consolidate ACR’s partnership with the Australian miner, which is already a 25 percent partner of ACR Mining Corp. in the Manat gold mining claim in Compostela Valley, currently undergoing advanced exploration work.

Discovered in 1992, the Tampakan mine is considered the largest untapped gold and copper deposit in Southeast Asia and now ranks as the fifth largest known undeveloped copper-gold deposit. It reportedly contains an estimated 2.4 billion metric tons, with a grade of 0.6 percent copper and 0.2 percent grams per ton of gold.

The Tampakan mine is majority-owned by Xstrata Plc. through local unit Sagittarius Mines Inc.

Earlier estimate showed that the company had indicated and inferred resource estimate of 2.4 billion tons at 0.6 percent copper and 0.2 g/t gold at a 0.3 percent copper cut-off grade.