DMCI Holdings Inc. said Wednesday that its subsidiary DMCI Mining Corp. aims to ship 1.5 million wet metric tons of nickel ore this year despite operating only a single mine, the Zambales Diversified Metals Corp.
Zambales Diversified was allowed by government in January to double its production to 2 million WMT of nickel ore after securing an environmental compliance certificate.
Last year, DMCI Mining managed to ship a total 1.45 million WMT of nickel ore, down 26 percent year-on-year because of the depletion of the Palawan mine in the last quarter of 2021. Zambales Diversified shipped 1.09 million WMT, while the balance is inventory from the Palawan mine.
“We have the necessary facilities and mitigating measures to minimize the impact of our operations on the environment. With these in place, we’re targeting to produce anywhere between 1.7 million to 2 million tons of nickel ore this year,” said DMCI Mining president Tulsi Das Reyes.
From January to March, ZDMC nickel ore production soared 88 percent from 318,000 WMT to 599,000 WMT, its highest-ever quarterly output. This led to a 16-percent improvement in total inventory, from 154,000 WMT to 178,000 WMT.
However, total shipment declined by 21 percent from 620,000 WMT to 487,000 WMT owing to the depletion of the BNC mine and stockpile, cushioned by the double-digit growth of ZDMC shipment.
Average selling price increased by 11 percent from $44 to $49 owing to higher Zambales shipments of higher-grade nickel ore.
Despite the mine and stockpile depletion of Berong, DMCI Mining standalone revenues narrowly declined to P1.3 billion from P1.4 billion due to better selling prices while reported net income contracted by 15 percent to P463 million.
