PMEA Blog

LONDON (Mineweb.com) –In yet another move by one of the top mining companies to secure resources into the future, Xstrata has exercised its option to acquire 62.5% of the huge Tampakan copper/gold project in the Philippines from Australian junior explorer Indophil Resources (ASX: IRN).

The project site is located approximately 50km north of General Santos City , a major growth centre on the southern Philippines island of Mindanao . General Santos has a population of approximately 420,000 and is accessed by sealed highways, a major deepwater port and a modern international standard airport with the capacity to take the largest available commercial aircraft.

The defined size of the Tampakan resource is very large � thought to be one of the biggest undeveloped copper-gold deposits in the South East Asian � Western Pacific region. A recently updated (April 2006) measured, indicated and inferred resource estimate put its size at just under two billion tonnes at 0.59% copper and 0.23 g/t gold at a 0.3% copper cut-off grade, carried out under JORC reporting guidelines. This resource is estimated to contain 11.6 million tonnes of copper and 14.6 million ounces of gold. Significant additional mineralisation potential exists.

Indophil and Xstrata Copper will now work through a period of transition with completion of the exercise and management handover of the project due to take place on 30 March 2007. Under the terms of the agreement with Indophil, Xstrata needed to exercise its option before the end of 2006 or the agreement would lapse. Xstrata has to pay Indophil A$50 million. That payment is made up of a capital amount and also a reimbursement of certain costs already incurred by Indophil.

Read More