Philex's Padcal mine production up 48% in value to P10.99 B

MANILA, Philippines - Philex Mining Corp. said the value of ore produced from its Padcal mine in Benguet province grew 48 percent in the first eight months of the year due to higher output and soaring prices of gold.

Philex, the country’s most profitable gold and copper producer, said it produced ore worth an estimated P10.99 billion compared with P7.42 billion a year earlier.

On the other hand, the estimated value of shipments of gold and copper concentrates surged 52.55 percent to P9.23 billion as against the previous level’s P6.05 billion.

In August alone, Philex president Jose Ernesto C. Villaluna Jr. said the Padcal mine delivered 808,703 dry metric tons of ore resulting in 6,388 DMT of concentrates containing 56.08 grams of gold per DMT, 22.98 percent copper, and 53.41 grams of silver per DMT.

This translates to a production of 11,518 ounces of gold, 3.24 million pounds of copper and 10,971 ounces of silver with an estimated value of P886 million for gold, P571 million for copper and P19 million for silver, for a total of P1.48 billion.

The estimated value is based on provisional metal prices of $1,820 per ounce of gold, $4.17 per pound of copper, and $41.35 per ounce of silver, at the exchange rate of P42.28 to the dollar.

Meanwhile, Philex effected shipment LDM-17 for Louis Dreyfus Commodities Metals Suisse SA containing 5,010 DMT of concentrates with an estimated gross value of P1 billion.

The concentrates contained about 9,229 ounces of gold, 2.57 million pounds of copper and 8,973 ounces of silver.

Estimated value is based on provisional metal prices of $1,405 per ounce of gold, $4 per pound of copper, and $40.17 per ounce of silver for a total of P551 million from gold, P437 million from copper, and P15 million from silver.

Philex Mining has yet to issue its earnings guidance for the year but Philex chairman Manuel V. Pangilinan has said that profits this year will exceed 2010 figures, on rising metal prices.

The firm has also declared recently that, based on evaluation of the Padcal mine’s reserves as of June 30, 2011 of 85.6 million tons, the life of the mine is extended from September 2017 to December 2020, three more years from its previously declared mine life.

Philex is also active in exploring the areas surrounding the Padcal mine as part of its drive to prolong the mine’s life to the optimum extent possible. It has more than 15,000 hectares of open ground in which several areas have been targeted for drilling or are now being drilled.       – With Marianne Go