Anglo American To Explore Copper and Gold on Three Areas in Northern Philipines
September 16th, 2009 | File Under : Companies - Copper - Gold
Anglo American PLC is keen on exploring for copper and gold in at least three areas in northern Philippines, after having pulled out of a joint venture with Philex Mining Inc. (PX.PH) to develop the Boyongan copper gold mine, a company executive said Wednesday.
Roderick Watt, the company’s exploration manager in the Philippines, said Anglo American has already obtained an exploration permit for a potential copper-gold mine project covering 8,000 hectares of greenfields in Conner municipality in Apayao, a northern province.
The company is also interested in exploring copper and gold porphyrys in Abra province and in the Mankayan municipality in Benguet province, both in the north, he added.
“We think it looks promising,” Watt told reporters on the sidelines of a mining conference.
The Mankayan area is covered by an application for a financial and technical assistance agreement, originally made by Newmont Mining Corp. and later acquired by Anglo American after Newmont dropped its plan to explore the area.
The agreement allows for full foreign ownership of large-scale mining projects, Watt said, adding Anglo American has made a separate application for an exploration permit for the Abra area.
Watt said he was working to obtain an initial round of financing from the company for the exploration project in Apayao, around $1 million. He hopes the company will approve the financing by the middle of next year.
Earlier this year, Philex bought out Anglo American from the Boyongan project for $55 million.
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