The multinational OceanaGold Corp. has budgeted USD7 million or P388 million prospecting for mine sites in the Philippines.
Gerard Bond, OceanaGold president and chief executive officer, told reporters in a briefing in Makati City that of the amount, $2 million had been allocated for Napartan, Nueva Vizcaya and another USD3 to USD5 million budgeted for the Didipio copper and gold mines traversing the provinces of Nueva Vizcaya and Quirino.
“The prospect that we have is called Napartan and we signed agreements with local land owners and barangay to commence drilling. We are in the process of getting drills to sites and we look forward to drilling. We have to have the drills active in about a month. We think there could be gold there but we will only know when we put in the drills,” Bond said.
Earlier, OceanaGold told regulators of capital investments at the Didipio mine this year ranging from USD45 million to USD55 million. This will fund underground development, the purchase of new underground equipment, the extension and conversion drilling and planned regional exploration activities.
The company is sanguine about extending the life of the Didipio mines through successful exploration and going deeper into the site.
According to Bond, their engineers have established mineable mineralization some 200 meters below their 200-meter open pit mine in the area and that more drills suggest even more gold below the 400-meter level.
“We have not found the bottom of yet,” Bond said.
The company also said it continues preparations for the listing of its local subsidiary, OceanaGold Philippines at the Philippine Stock Exchange to raise capital of up to P7.9 billion.
The Didipio mine is seen producing 120,000 to 135,000 ounces of gold and 12,000 to 14,000 tons of copper at an all-in sustaining cost ranging from $750 and $850 an ounce.
