Nickel Asia Corp., a listed mining company, said Monday it ended a deal to be exclusive mining service contractor of Hallmark Mining Corp. and Austral-Asia Link Mining Corp. for a project in Davao Oriental.
Hallmark Mining and Austral-Asia Link have an existing nickel mining claim near a wildlife sanctuary in Davao Oriental that they haven’t operated since 2016. The mining claim total 17,215 hectares some four kilometers from the protected area of Pujada Bay and close to the boundary of the Mount Hamiguitan, a place listed by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization as a heritage site.
Nickel Asia said it had to cancel the service contractor agreement “after the parties failed to on to commercial terms of the definitive agreements regarding the proposed provision by (Nickel Asia) of its mining contractor services to Hallmark and Austral-Asia” in relation to the mineral production sharing agreement.
Nickel Asia planned to establish a processing plant in the mining claim that will use high-pressure acid leach system to extract nickel and cobalt from the laterite ore bodies.
