Nickel Asia shipments fall 17% in Jan-Sept

MANILA, Philippines - Nickel shipments of listed miner Nickel Asia Corp. fell 17 percent in terms of value during the first nine months of the year despite higher shipment volume on lower nickel prices.

In a regulatory filing, the company said the estimated value of nickel ore shipments fell to P7.67 billion during the period from P9.32 billion in the same period last year.

In the first nine months of the year, the company shipped out 10.32 million wet metric tons (WMT), up from 9.56 million in the same period last year.  

The company’s Rio Tuba mine accounted for 43 percent of the total volume exported during the first three quarters of the year. The mine shipped out 1.34 million WMT of saprolite ore and 3.13 million WMT of limonite ore. Of this, 2.54 million WMT were delivered to the Coral Bay HPAL plant.

The company’s Taganito mine shipped out 1.15 million WMT of saprolite ore and 1.34 million WMT of limonite ore. This includes the initial delivery of 272,000 WMT of limonite ore to the newly-commissioned HPAL (high pressure acid leach) plant.

Nickel Asia said monthly ore deliveries to the plant would continue until it is ready for full commercial operation in the latter part of the year.

At full capacity, the HPAL plant would require over 4.5 million WMT of limonite ore annually.

The company’s Hinatuan mine shipped out a total of 2.69 million WMT of limonite ore, mostly of high iron variety.

Its Cagdianao mine shipped a total of 240,000 WMT of saprolite ore and 435,000 WMT of limonite ore.

In the first nine months of the year, the estimated realized nickel price applicable to 3.52 million WMT of ore shipped averaged at $7.11 per pound of payable nickel against $8.27 per pound of payable nickel during the same period last year.

The balance of the shipment were sold on a negotiated price which averaged at $19.34 per WMT compared to $24.75 per WMT in the same period last year.

“While we have been hit by weak commodity prices for the most part of the year, we are still fortunate that demand for our various ore products remain high while commercial operations of the new Taganito plant will start soon,” said company president and CEO Gerard Brimo.

“We can therefore look forward to further growth of our ore sales next year,” he added.