High metal prices to extend Philex’s mine life

PHOTO CAPTION: SAFETY FIRST-Underground workers of Philex Mining Corporation comply with health protocols against Corona virus. The lockdown and strict implementation of health protocols shielded the mining community from COVID-19 until now. JoMan

TUBA, Benguet June 17 – The Philex Mining Corporation admitted that there is a big possibility that its projected mine life by 2022 might be extended for a reasonable time once the world metal prices will remain at a high level beyond the implementation of the community quarantine.

Philex president and chief executive officer Engr. Eulalio B. Austin, Jr. said that the high meal prices right at the start of the implementation of the community quarantine last March 17, 2020, played a key role in allowing the company to gain amidst the wrath of the global pandemic that caused the forced closure of businesses, except export-oriented operations like mining.

At present, the prevailing price of gold in the world market is $1,700 per ounce while copper started to also increase to $2.16 to $2.50 per pound.

We might be considering a possible extension of Philex’s mine life if the high metal prices will continue to prevail as China has started to open its market. However, we will still keep our fingers crossed until the end of this year,” Engr. Austin stressed.

The Philex official disclosed that based on the company’s earlier projections, copper should remain at over $2.50 per pound while gold prices should stay or even exceed $1,700 per ounce to ensure profitability aside from the company being able to further improve its projected production of more than 23,000 tons of ore per day.

Earlier, Philex was projected to end mine life by 2022 unless it will be able to discover a new ore body within its existing tenement area that will contribute in ongoing efforts to extend its mine life despite having submitted to the Mines and Geosciences Bureau (MGB) its mine decommissioning and rehabilitation plan.

According to him, mining has bright prospects in the coming months because of the prevailing high metal prices due to the opening up of numerous economies, especially by developed countries, that is why Philex remains to be aggressive in further improving its production target to offset its previous losses during the previous years when metal prices were low and production was in a similar situation.

Austin personally supervised the overall operations of Philex during the implementation of the community quarantine as he was in the mine site when the lockdown was enforced that served as inspiration and motivation to both the surface and underground workers to exert extra effort in ensuring that the company will be able to overshoots its production target at the start of the year.

The Philex president commended the company’s work force for their utmost dedication in making sure that the company will be able to continue operating during the community quarantine that resulted to the significantly improved performance that allowed the same to recover from its huge backlog in production last year to over production during the first quarter.

Austin rallied mine workers to sustain the momentum that the company was able to achieve this year so that prospects in possibly extending mine life will be realized with the prevailing high metal prices in the world market as economies of countries start to recover from the slump created by the global pandemic. By Hent