Philex Mining looking to extend life of Padcal mine beyond 2022

PHILEX MINING Corporation is looking into extending the life of its Padcal gold-copper operation in Benguet beyond 2022, the company’s chairman said on Wednesday.

“I think there’s continuing efforts to explore resources within the tenement... There’s a good chance that we could extend it beyond 2022,” Philex Chairman Manny V. Pangilinan said on the sidelines of the company’s annual stockholders’ meeting on Wednesday.

Philex Mining announced last year it had identified additional ore reserves that would extend Padcal’s mine life by two years to 2022 from 2020.

In March, the listed miner said it pushed back to 2018 a plan to mine the 800-600 meter level (ML) at Padcal to reduce capital expenditure this year. Based on a resource estimate, Padcal has remaining proved ore reserves of some 69.2 million metric tons (MT) until the end of the mine’s life span in 2022.

Padcal’s initial mine life was only up to 2014.

At the same time, Mr. Pangilinan said the miner’s first half financial performance looks to be better than the same period in 2015.

“We reviewed the latest estimate for the first half. It looks like the core net income will be ahead of last year. So it’s still early days maybe to anticipate what the full year number will be but I think for the first half, it’s safe to say we’ll be ahead of first half last year,” he said.

Asked for the range, Mr. Pangilinan replied, “double-digit growth.”

Philex Mining booked P420 million in earnings in the first three months of the year, rising 38% from the P305 million recorded in the comparable year-ago period, as it kept its costs and expenses low, even as metal prices continued to be unstable.

Its first quarter core net income, or earnings from its main businesses minus its expenses and revenues from other activities, surged 82% to P380 million from P214 million the previous year.

Philex Mining is one of three Philippine subsidiaries of Hong Kong’s First Pacific Co. Ltd., the other two being Metro Pacific Investments Corp. and Philippine Long Distance Telephone Co. (PLDT).

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