Philex's Padcal mine posts 22% growth in production

MANILA, Philippines - Philex Mining Corp., the country’s top gold producer, registered a 22-percent growth in the value of ore produced from its Padcal mine last year on higher metal prices and output.

Based on the company’s disclosure to the Philippine Stock Exchange, production rose to P16.15 billion in 2011 from P13.24 billion the previous year.   

Ore shipments last year amounted to P14.82 billion, up 14.42 percent from P12.95 billion a year earlier, as metal prices continue to surge.

Ore output went up to 9.49 million dry metric tons compared to 9.36 million DMT in 2010 while shipment volume was almost the same at 65,133 DMT of concentrates from 65,361 DMT.

For December 2011, Philex senior vice president for finance Renato N. Migriño said the Padcal mine delivered 819,938 DMT of ore resulting in 5,839 DMT of concentrates containing 57.34 grams of gold per DMT, 24.73 percent copper and 56.24 grams of silver per DMT.

This resulted in the production of about 10,767 ounces of gold worth P743 million, 3.18 million pounds of copper valued at P478 million and 10,559 ounces of silver worth P13 million.

This is based on provisional metal prices of $1.574.50 per ounce of gold, $3.43 per pound of copper, and $28 per ounce of silver at the exchange rate of P43.84 to $1.

Meanwhile, Migriño said Philex effected two shipments last December for Pan Pacific Copper Co. Ltd. and Louis Dreyfuss Commodities Suisse SA containing about 9,873 DMT of concentrates having an estimated gross value of P2.24 billion.

The concentrates contain about 18,979 ounces of gold worth P1.39 billion, 5.4 million pounds of copper valued at P818 million, and 18,707 ounces of silver worth P25 million.

This is based on the average provisional metal prices of $1,672 per ounce of gold, $3.45 per pound of copper, and $31 per ounce of silver.

Philex chairman Manuel V. Pangilinan said earlier that the company was looking at record earnings in 2011. It posted a net profit of P3.95 billion in 2010, 44 percent higher than the P2.74 billion registered a year before.

In the nine months ending September last year, Philex reported a net income of P4.35 billion, the highest nine-month profit in its 55-year history, and was 106 percent more than the P2.12 billion recorded the previous level.