Glencore AG to invest $600 million in Pasar

MANILA, Philippines - The local copper smelter of Swiss trader Glencore International AG will finalize this year its decision to invest around $600 million for its expansion.

Fresh investments will fund the expansion of Philippine Associated Smelting and Refining Corp.’s (PASAR) smelting plant and its first venture into power generation, a top company executive said.

“It is being studied now...We will make a decision before the year ends,” PASAR chairman Angel Veloso Jr. said in an interview.

Specifically, PASAR is looking to spend $300 million to expand the copper smelting plant in Leyte and another $300 million for a power plant, he said.

In June, President Benigno S.C. Aquino III’s investment mission in the United Kingdom resulted in the signing of more than $1 billion in business agreements between British and Filipino companies.

PASAR’s parent firm Glencore announced its plan to invest $600 million in the Philippines, which would create up to 700 new jobs.

For the power plant, Veloso said the copper smelter wants to build a 200-megawatt (MW) power plant but the plant’s technology is still subject to the ongoing feasibility study.

“This will be for our own use and also for the possibly of [selling to the] grid and to support the downstream program for copper,” Veloso said.

In April last year, PASAR said it is exploring the possibility of putting up a 60-MW coal-fired power plant.

To date, copper smelting plant in Leyte requires around 32 MW for its operations.

But given the expansion plans, its consumption might more than double to 70 MW, Veloso said.

Excess electricity of around 100 MW can be sold to the grid, Veloso said.

Under the Power Development Plan 2010-2030, the Visayas grid needs 2,150 MW in new capacity but only 654 MW is considered “committed” given the availability of project financing and 186 MW is still indicative.

For the smelting plant, Veloso said the mining boom encouraged the company to expand locally.

PASAR targets to increase output to as much as one million metric tons (MT) of copper concentrates per year from the current capacity of around 700,000 MT, Veloso said.

The refinery, which is inside the Leyte Industrial Development Estate, can also produce 215,000 MT of Grade A electrolytic copper cathodes per year.

“There is no local market to speak of but we have a project with the Trade department to come up with an integrated mining industry from mining down to manufacturing,” Veloso said.

Veloso said the government can encourage firms to supply concentrates to PASAR, which will process and even sell the minerals.

The strategic location of PASAR’s 80-hectare smelting complex gives it access to copper concentrate supplies from Indonesia, Papua New Guinea, Canada, Australia, Argentina, Brazil and Chile.

It is also close to refined copper markets of China, Korea, Taiwan, Vietnam, Thailand, Malaysia, Indonesia, Singapore and Japan.

PASAR was created by the Philippine government in 1976 to help industrialize the country.