Toledo Mining Steps Up The Pace In Its Philippines Nickel Business
October 26 2004
Minesite.com
By Robert Wallace
We last wrote about Toledo Mining in August. It’s not like us to feature a reported company just two months later as there are so many juniors clamouring for a bit of exposure to investors in Europe. Rapidly evolving events at its nickel projects in the Philippines have, however, demanded an update.
To recap, when it listed in April this year, the company was named Toledo Copper as its sole project was the Carmen copper mine near the town of Toledo on Cebu island. This is a medium-term project where the rehabilitation required to return the project to operational status has now been costed at US$ 178 million. Endeavour Financial has just been appointed to plan capital provision. Toledo acquired a 40 per cent interest in what was effectively a dormant resource from Atlas Consolidated Mining Corporation, a Philippine-registered company owned by the Ramos family, which also own substantial publishing interests in the country.
This summer, the company did a second set of deals primarily with the same family, acquiring stakes in two established but non-producing nickel laterite mines located on Palawan island in the south-west Philippines, acquiring 44 per cent in Berong and 52 per cent in Celestial. These deposits are so important that on 6th October, the company changed its name to emphasise its wider-than-copper activities; its AIM epic also altered from TCU to TMC.
At Berong, mining is expected to be contracted to Australian company Leighton Contractors and the total cash cost of operations will be around US$1.30 per pound of nickel shipped. Profitability is helped by a strong nickel price and a weak Philippine peso. An FOB shipping contract has now been signed with a Japanese customer, Nippon Metals and Alloy, to supply 300,000 tonnes of dried ore pa at a nickel grade of 2.2%. At the current price of US$6 per pound, this should give total annual revenues of US$15.7 million , of which Toledo’s share will be US$6.9 million. A second agreement with Japanese buyers for a further 350,000 tonnes of ore pa is nearing signature. This would bring the total to 650,000 tonnes, generating total income of US$35.5 million and US$15.6 million respectively.
Negotiations are also proceeding with a prospective Australian customer which would take 600,000 tonnes of high grade nickel/cobalt limonite material at a grade greater than1.8% nickel equivalent. At the same nickel price, Toledo’s revenue from this additional contract should be US$5.9 million.
Total annual Toledo cash flow from Berong of US$21.5 million is therefore thought by management to be within reach. All that is needed is a road, a shipping pier and a final government mining permit to add to the regional one already obtained. Permitting and confidence is helped by the existence some 150 kms south of Berong on Palawan island of the Rio Tuba nickel mine which has been direct shipping nickel for over 25 years and has just installed and is commissioning a 10,000tonnes/year HPAL processing plant which has recently received its government environmental permit.
The Berong nickel deposit is said to be the fourth largest in the world with 275 tonnes of reserves at 1.3% nickel, ie 3.6million tonnes of contained nickel. As it has an approximately 50/50 mix of limonite and saprolite orebodies it offers options for either leaching or smelting. The company intends to commission a bankable feasibility study at a cost of some US$20 million which it could fund out of cash flow to asses the economics of developing the mine into a not less than 50,000 tonnes of nickel pa producer. Not surprisingly, there is considerable interest already from majors to farm in to its future large scale operations.
Toledo’s success is largely due to its Australian CEO Chris Kyriakou. Originally a lawyer, he was a mine developer in Australia, Canada and South Africa for 20 years. In the late 90’s he left the industry but returned with a keen interest in the Philippines where he first met Atlas in July last year. Most mining companies have to discover an economic orebody, attract capital and then develop a mine. What Kyriakou especially likes about Berong is that Toledo just has to dig ore, dry it and deliver it to a port.
The Philippines hosts some of the world’s most important mineral resources, especially of copper, nickel, cobalt and gold and silver. Yet currently mining development in the country is minimal; the effects of past typhoons, economic strife and environmental antipathy to mining have conspired to close most previously viable mines. The government is now actively courting mining companies and hopefully the Minister of Mines will be in London for a Special Philippines Mining Forum run by Minesite in February 2005.
At the moment there are less than a dozen operating miners either listed on the Philippines Stock Exchange or foreign explorers active in the country. Most of the prospects being explored or developed are previously-active mines which closed in the 90’s; Toledo’s Carmen copper mine is an instance. No wonder the Philippines Environment Secretary Michael Defensor appealed at a business leaders’ forum in Manila last week for investors to “participate in developing mineral resources”.
We last wrote about Toledo Mining in August. It’s not like us to feature a reported company just two months later as there are so many juniors clamouring for a bit of exposure to investors in Europe. Rapidly evolving events at its nickel projects in the Philippines have, however, demanded an update.
To recap, when it listed in April this year, the company was named Toledo Copper as its sole project was the Carmen copper mine near the town of Toledo on Cebu island. This is a medium-term project where the rehabilitation required to return the project to operational status has now been costed at US$ 178 million. Endeavour Financial has just been appointed to plan capital provision. Toledo acquired a 40 per cent interest in what was effectively a dormant resource from Atlas Consolidated Mining Corporation, a Philippine-registered company owned by the Ramos family, which also own substantial publishing interests in the country.
This summer, the company did a second set of deals primarily with the same family, acquiring stakes in two established but non-producing nickel laterite mines located on Palawan island in the south-west Philippines, acquiring 44 per cent in Berong and 52 per cent in Celestial. These deposits are so important that on 6th October, the company changed its name to emphasise its wider-than-copper activities; its AIM epic also altered from TCU to TMC.
At Berong, mining is expected to be contracted to Australian company Leighton Contractors and the total cash cost of operations will be around US$1.30 per pound of nickel shipped. Profitability is helped by a strong nickel price and a weak Philippine peso. An FOB shipping contract has now been signed with a Japanese customer, Nippon Metals and Alloy, to supply 300,000 tonnes of dried ore pa at a nickel grade of 2.2%. At the current price of US$6 per pound, this should give total annual revenues of US$15.7 million , of which Toledo’s share will be US$6.9 million. A second agreement with Japanese buyers for a further 350,000 tonnes of ore pa is nearing signature. This would bring the total to 650,000 tonnes, generating total income of US$35.5 million and US$15.6 million respectively.
Negotiations are also proceeding with a prospective Australian customer which would take 600,000 tonnes of high grade nickel/cobalt limonite material at a grade greater than1.8% nickel equivalent. At the same nickel price, Toledo’s revenue from this additional contract should be US$5.9 million.
Total annual Toledo cash flow from Berong of US$21.5 million is therefore thought by management to be within reach. All that is needed is a road, a shipping pier and a final government mining permit to add to the regional one already obtained. Permitting and confidence is helped by the existence some 150 kms south of Berong on Palawan island of the Rio Tuba nickel mine which has been direct shipping nickel for over 25 years and has just installed and is commissioning a 10,000tonnes/year HPAL processing plant which has recently received its government environmental permit.
The Berong nickel deposit is said to be the fourth largest in the world with 275 tonnes of reserves at 1.3% nickel, ie 3.6million tonnes of contained nickel. As it has an approximately 50/50 mix of limonite and saprolite orebodies it offers options for either leaching or smelting. The company intends to commission a bankable feasibility study at a cost of some US$20 million which it could fund out of cash flow to asses the economics of developing the mine into a not less than 50,000 tonnes of nickel pa producer. Not surprisingly, there is considerable interest already from majors to farm in to its future large scale operations.
Toledo’s success is largely due to its Australian CEO Chris Kyriakou. Originally a lawyer, he was a mine developer in Australia, Canada and South Africa for 20 years. In the late 90’s he left the industry but returned with a keen interest in the Philippines where he first met Atlas in July last year. Most mining companies have to discover an economic orebody, attract capital and then develop a mine. What Kyriakou especially likes about Berong is that Toledo just has to dig ore, dry it and deliver it to a port.
The Philippines hosts some of the world’s most important mineral resources, especially of copper, nickel, cobalt and gold and silver. Yet currently mining development in the country is minimal; the effects of past typhoons, economic strife and environmental antipathy to mining have conspired to close most previously viable mines. The government is now actively courting mining companies and hopefully the Minister of Mines will be in London for a Special Philippines Mining Forum run by Minesite in February 2005.
At the moment there are less than a dozen operating miners either listed on the Philippines Stock Exchange or foreign explorers active in the country. Most of the prospects being explored or developed are previously-active mines which closed in the 90’s; Toledo’s Carmen copper mine is an instance. No wonder the Philippines Environment Secretary Michael Defensor appealed at a business leaders’ forum in Manila last week for investors to “participate in developing mineral resources”.
Toledo heard the call ahead of the crowd. So have some other shrewd investors in this rapidly-evolving story; with a purchase of 30million shares, 3.4%, AIM listed Cambrian Mining has just joined RAB Capital and Resources Investment Trust as significant holders on Toledo’s share register.
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