PMEA Blog

General Santos City, Philippines—Global mining giant Xstrata’s Sagittarius Mines Inc. (SMI) on Friday announced that it continues to hope to start development activities in its Tampakan project next year to lay the groundwork for full operation by 2016.

SMI, a partnership between the Switzerland-based mining firm, Indophil Resources NL and Filipino investors, to mine gold and copper deposits in Tampakan, South Cotabato and parts of Davao del Sur, was working doubly hard to acquire the necessary certificates for the projected operation, John Arnaldo, SMI corporate communications manager, told reporters here Friday.

SMI’s optimism came amid the existence of a ban by the provincial government of South Cotabato on open-pit mining and other mining methods seen to be destructive of the environment.

The ban has affected SMI’s development activities in the proposed mining area.

With a foreign direct investment of about $5.9 billion, Xstrata foresaw an annual average copper production of 340,000 tons and 350,000 ounces of gold, based on a 20-year operation of the Tampakan project.

Xstrata said the Tampakan project’s mill recovery rates were at 83-90 percent for copper and 60-80 percent for gold, with a copper concentrate grade of 37-34 percent.

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