Friday, January 11, 2008 SMI to pursue Tampakan project
GENERAL SANTOS CITY -- With the New People's Army (NPA) finally owning responsibility for the attack at the base camp of Sagittarius Mines, Incorporated on New Year's Day, the mining company indicated it is still keen on pursuing its massive copper and gold project.
An SMI official sought on Thursday for comment on the admission of Gregorio "Ka Roger" Rosal that the NPA carried the assault hinted such even as he gave very little reaction.
"I think it's better that community leaders and residents will respond (to the allegations of the communist rebels)," Rolando Doria, SMI local and regional government affairs superintendent, said in a text message.
Before dawn on New Year's Day, about 30 to 40 NPA rebels stormed the base camp of Sagittarius in far-flung Barangay Tablu, Tampakan, South Cotabato and burned several facilities.
Doria said the timetable of the company is still on track despite the incident, which is the first violent attack on the firm in four years.
He added the company expects to commence full-scale operation in 2012, noting that present activities are still focused on drilling and exploration to complete an extended pre-feasibility study.
A pre-feasibility study was completed more than a year ago at a tune of Au$27 million, financed by Australian firm Indophil Resources NL.
Giant global mining player Xstrata Copper, based in Brisbane, Australia, entered the picture last March after exercising an option agreement with Indophil, with the former controlling 62.5 percent of Sagittarius' stakes.
Doria also said the other day that the communities within the mines development site were "dismayed" by the incident.
"The communities expressed their (continuous) support to the venture following the attack," he claimed, stressing the "company is very thankful for that gesture,"
Doria reiterated that host communities, Mindanao and "even the whole Philippines" would reap economic benefits from the Tampakan project, which will be excavated using open-pit method based on a preliminary study.
Top investor Xstrata Copper released a new estimate last month, its first since assuming management responsibility in March that pegged resources at 2.2 billion tons, up 10 percent from the last estimate declared in April 2006.
The upgraded measured, indicated and inferred resource totals 2.2 billion tons at a grade of 0.6 percent copper and 0.2 grams per ton gold and contains 12.8 million tons of copper and 15.2 million ounces of gold using a 0.3 percent copper cut-off grade, the company said in a statement.
The new mineral resource, which includes 24,700 meters of drilling conducted in 2007, also includes estimated average grades for molybdenum of 70 parts per million.
Previous estimates pegged resources at two billion tons, containing 11.6 million tons of copper and 14.6 million ounces of gold at a 0.3 percent copper cutoff grade.
