Philex shipments jump 36% to P12.95 billion on higher metal prices

MANILA, Philippines - Top copper and gold producer Philex Mining Corp. reported a 36-percent jump in the estimated value of shipments last year to P12.95 billion, from P9.51 billion in 2009, on the back of higher metal prices.

Philex, the country’s most profitable mining firm, said metals produced from its Padcal mine climbed 40 percent in 2010 to P13.24 billion, equivalent to 9.36 million dry metric tons (DMT). Last year, the company produced 8.2 million DMT worth P9.48 billion.

In a disclosure to the Philippine Stock Exchange, Philex said it made 13 shipments of copper concentrates amounting to 65,361 DMT in 2010, roughly the same as the 13 shipments with a total weight of 65,192 DMT a year earlier.

Philex president Jose Ernesto C. Villaluna Jr. said Philex effected two shipments last December witha total of 10,099 DMT of concentrates containing about 23,453 ounces of gold, 5.45 million pounds of copper and 22,956 ounces of silver.

The estimated gross value of the two shipments amounted to P2.38 billion, consisting of P1.41 billion from gold, P941 million from copper and P28 million from silver. This is based on average provisional metal prices of $1,376 per ounce of gold, $3.95 per pound of copper and $28.23 per ounce of silver.

Meanwhile, the Padcal mine delivered 835,699 DMT of ore resulting in 6,065 DMT of concentrates in December 2010. This contained 70.88 grams of gold per DMT, 23.92 percent copper and 66.11 grams of silver per DMT.

The estimated value of the month’s production is P1.49 billion of which P856 million is from gold, P620 million from copper and P17 million from silver. This is based on provisional metal prices of $1,410 per ounce of gold, $4.42 per pound of copper and $30.63 per ounce of silver, at the exchange rate of P43.885 to $1.

Aside from continuing production in Padcal, Philex chairman Manuel V. Pangilinan said “we are quite focused on getting the Silangan project closer to completion of its pre-feasibility study by the first quarter of 2011.”

The Silangan copper-gold mine in Surigao del Sur is estimated to hold significantly more resources than the Padcal mine, which has been in operation for a little more than half a century.