Nickel Asia targets 10% higher ore sales volume by 2025

MANILA, Philippines — Nickel Asia Corp. aims to  grow its nickel ore sales volume by 10 percent by 2025 as two mines are set to beg‌in production in the coming years.

“Over the next four years, we expect to grow our nickel ore sales volume by deploying two new nickel mines,” Nickel Asia VP  for Public and Social Affairs group Jose Bayani Baylon said during  the Philippine Stock Exchange Strengthening Access and Reach Investors Day forum.

Among these new mines to be deployed are the Dinapigue mine Isabela and the mine in Manicani island in Guiuan, Eastern Samar.

The Dinapigue mine is set to be launched this year, while the Manicani mine is set to be deployed by 2024.

“These will compensate for the depletion of our Hinatuan mine by 2023,” Baylon said, referring to the project in Hinatuan island in Surigao del Norte.

With the addition of the two mines, Nickel Asia is targeting nickel ore sales volume to reach 19.775 million wet metric tons (WMT) by 2025, a 10 percent increase from the 17.935 million WMT sales volume in 2021.

Nickel Asia reported a 10 percent decline in  nickel ores sales volume  to 2.39 million WMT in the first quarter despite a 17 percent hike in revenues from the sale of nickel to P3.32 billion.

The company attributed the increase in revenues to the higher weighted average realized price of ore sold, which surged by 22 percent to $27.03 per WMT.

Nickel Asia exported 651,000 WMT of saprolite and limonite ore to Japanese and Chinese customers at the weighted average price of $46.90 per WMT in the first three months of the year, compared to 845,000 WMT at $45.60 per WMT a year ago.

The company delivered 1.74 million WMT of limonite ore to the Coral Bay and Taganito HPAL plants, with a realized average price of $11.80 per pound of payable nickel compared to the 1.81 million WMT at $7.96 per pound of payable nickel in 2021,”Nickel Asia said.

The  deliveries to the two HPAL plants generated $19.58 per WMT in the first quarter of 2022, higher than the $11.29 per MWT in the same period last year.

First quarter net income jumped by 80 percent to P1.05 billion as revenues increased to P3.69 billion from P3.17 billion.

“The global nickel industry continues to labor under a record deficit – with an even larger projected deficit this year as compared to the previous year,” Nickel Asia president and COO Martin Antonio Zamora said earlier.

“Coupled with continued strong demand for stainless steel and the accelerating trend in demand in the electric vehicle market, these factors have been beneficial to our metals and mining business,” he said.